"Living Sacrifices" 

7/02/00 - The Rev. Ted Broadway

SERMON

Mexico 2000 has come and gone. If you will indulge me I will talk about the trip and its significance. I would like to do this for a couple of reasons. First, The budget for this trip was about $52,000, much of which came from you. Over the course of 11 years we have spent close to half a million dollars on this mission, a fair percentage coming from Westminster. And over these years we have built some 80 houses and 5 churches. Not all of you will be able to be at the Shareholders Dessert this coming Friday night and I believe you have the right to know what has happened with your mission dollars. And secondly, each year we go the experience for me deepens and I wanted to share with you what I have been learning.
 
But first- the facts of the trip.. There were 141 people on this trip- exactly 100 teens and 41 adults. We have been raising money since February to meet our $52,000 budget. We traveled in 15 rented vehicles- 9 15 passenger vans, 3 Windstar minivans and 2 24 ft. box trucks. The trucks and a minivan went early and were in Mexico when we got there. The rest of the vehicles successfully negotiated getting through Los Angeles twice and in and out of Mexico. If ever I have doubted the existence of the guardian angels sitting on each of our bumpers- those doubts are long gone. Each van traveled with a radio so we were all in communication- thank the Lord. 
 
We were sent to a small community east of Tijuana called Pipila to build 8 11' x 22' wood frame houses. By 1996 Tijuana had grown to a city of more than a million and has been growing over 5% a year since- especially on the east side, in the dusty canyons where we worked. We worked in a little community of chickens, stray dogs, winding dust roads and crumbling embankments. Homes were scratched together from wooden pallets, used garage doors and whatever else could be found or bought cheaply. People get up early to work in factories or shops, sometimes traveling by foot or by bus an hour or more each way. Nicely dressed in uniforms, the children walked to and from school. Two of our houses were built right across the street from an elementary school. The school children serenaded our youth and many people who came to take their kids to school asked about what we were doing and why. 
 
The thing that impressed me so much on this trip was our youth. We mixed together some from First Presbyterian Jacksonville, a few from Gold Beach and our own. Reading the papers and watching the news often gives the impression that teens are self-serving, drug abusing, stupid, lazy and violent. Well, some are. But I count it a privilege to have been around 100 teens who love God, make the best out of tough situations, work hard and love deeply. The spirit of cooperation among our youth was phenomenal. One of our sites did not receive the supplies to pour the concrete slab until 4 pm on our first building day- and in order to finish a house the slab must be poured that first day. Other crews that had just finished pouring their own slab (by hand, mind you) drove over to this site and I saw an 11' x 22' slab poured by hand in one hour and fifty minutes- happily, joyfully. I heard teenagers singing inside a house they were building. I worked with kids who wanted to get it done and get it right. I watched them struggle to use every ounce of Spanish they learned in their high school Spanish classes- where it is not a grade that is on the line but a relationship with a human being. Our youth were incredible. It was a sweet, sweet time. It was a powerful time and lives were changed. Our people have many fabulous stories to tell. These stories will have to wait until Friday.
 
I simply want to share with you some of what I have learned this morning. Two things. 
 
First, I learned about unity in Christ. At the end of our time of building we gather to bless each house. Our kids and their adult counselors and building supervisors gather with the family for whom we have built. The kids all sign a Bible and present it to the family. We read Scripture and pray and bless the house and those who will be living in it. One of the Scriptures chosen for this year's blessing was Galatians 3:28- There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, porque todos vosotros sois uno en Cristo Jesus- for you are all one in Christ Jesus. We are one in Christ. Every nation, every language, every people. 
 
I hear a great deal about diversity these days. But our differences produce tension. Differences make us uncomfortable. People too often react to this by hatred or arrogant pride in their own group or closing in with those who are like them. Diversity is not the issue- unity is. What is that unity that transcends all the diversity? What can put us together? In Galatians Paul is telling us that Jesus Christ is able to lift us above our differences and make us one in Him. In Revelation 7 we are told that heaven will be filled with people from "every nation, tribe, people and language." If that is heaven then we would do well to get on with the unifying and do some reaching out. 
 
Let me see if I can picture this unity for you. I have a good number of friends who show me Christ. They live and pray and love in such a way that I can see Christ in them. There is a man, a Mexican national, who every year greets us as we come into our camp in Mexico. His name is Zenon. He puts lime in the pit toilets and cleans them out. He then acts as gate guard for our camp. He says it is his honor to serve God in this way. He has never been to the USA. He speaks no English. 
 
Two years ago my grandfather passed away while we were in Mexico. When I told Zenon he took care of me in a special way. He spoke of our home being heaven and was most concerned that Grandpa knew Christ. He took me aside and prayed for me and my family. Last year I was unable to go because the birth of our son was imminent. This year he gave me a large hug and asked me how my abuelita, my grandmother, was doing. Praise of Christ was always on his lips. He said that by next year his mother would be moving into the Tijuana area and asked if I would visit her when the time comes. His open heart, quick smile, his joy, his patience with my lack of language skill, his constant praise of God and his love for Jesus have made us brothers. Our unity in Christ transcends all race and language and nationality and economic status. He is my brother. 
 
Do you see? In this kind of unity is the hope of the world. How desperately I have needed to know that Jesus makes a real difference in a real world. How desperately I needed to be embraced by Zenon- not just a some vague idea of tolerance- but a brother of flesh and blood. How I need his prayers- and we have committed to pray for each other. How I need to watch him live before God. When he smiles all heaven breaks loose. Unidad. Unity. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
 
Secondly. I learned something of what it means to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice…" There is a deep feeling of satisfaction and 'rightness' that settles on one during and after doing concentrated service for the Lord. The work was hard. The living was less than comfortable. The energy required was much. I believe that this feeling of rightness comes because missions and works such as Mexico 2000 are a direct way to "present our bodies as living sacrifices." The animal sacrifices of earlier times have been rendered obsolete by the sacrifice of Jesus. God is looking for something deeper. In the end, animal sacrifices only touched the outside of holy things. Even in the Old Testament God said, "To obey is better than sacrifice." God is looking for that transformation of the heart that makes us available to Him. Our lives are at God's disposal. We are living sacrifices.
 
At the end of the work week we have our last campfire program. We start with goofy songs and skits and quickly get more serious. This year Matt Singley- who was in high school 11 years ago and whose wife Jenni came to Christ in Mexico last year- spoke and invited kids to accept Christ. Some of them did- God be praised. Another tradition we have is that after all is said and done at that campfire, we open the floor to anyone who wishes to speak about what the trip has meant and what God has done. This year it lasted for two hours and twenty minutes. Young person after young person was standing up and speaking. As I sat there and listened late into the night, it became very clear to me. As we had acted as living sacrifices on this mission, faith in Christ was beginning to make sense to these high school youth. They could see it, feel it and experience it. Our actions made all of our words about faith make sense. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Well done is better than well said."
 
Faith is a thing to lived out. I sense a whole world around us saying, "Do not tell me that Christ is the way, show me." One hundred teenagers, forty one adults, a school full of elementary schoolers, their teachers and parents and many Mexican friends and neighbors have gotten an eyeful. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
 

amen