The sermon I was originally intending to deliver today is not the one you will hear this morning.  You’ll probably hear it sometime in the future, but God laid on my heart a different message late in the week after the bulletin was already printed.  We are told in Scripture that the Holy Spirit is like the wind—He blows wherever and whenever He feels like it.  It’s good to shake things up a little bit.  In fact, there are times when we need to be shaken up a lot—whether it is at work or church or in our marriage.  There are times when we need to examine our lives and change things or recommit ourselves.

          A couple of months ago, most of our board went to a workshop on church health and vitality.  It was about church growth and revitalization.  We were asked to consider how healthy our church really is and what we need to do differently, what we should keep doing, or what we should stop doing.  These are big issues we must face—what is our goal as a church?  What is our mission or purpose?  These are issues our board is discussing, and it will be something we as a whole church will need to discuss and ponder.  As good as we are in some areas, I am convinced that if we don’t make some changes and unite around a clear purpose and vision and renew our individual spiritual lives, our church will die sooner rather than later.  That may sound harsh to some of you, but it’s the reality.  And if we go through a process of self-examination and discussion about our future and decide we are fine just the way we are, as some struggling churches do, I can promise you the death of this church is one funeral I will not preside over—because I won’t be around for it.  I don’t say that to threaten you or scare you, I say it because I am committed to revitalizing this church along with you and if your plans are different then we will part ways because I would not be what you need or want and vice versa. 

          Too many churches in our own conference are in our position.  70% of the churches in the East Coast Conference are declining.  Another 13% are stagnant—staying the same.  That means 83% of the almost 70 churches in our conference are stagnant or declining.  Over ¾ of them are not growing.  The church is a living organism and living organisms by definition are to grow.  Churches go through different stages; that is for sure, but they need to keep transforming themselves every so often or things grow stagnant and stale.  You’ve heard the saying, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”  General Douglas MacArthur said that.  “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”  Well, I submit to you that that same idea is also true with many churches.  Many old churches (like ours is) seem to never die, they just slowly fade away.  The death or closure of a church is not always a bad thing—churches can die with grace and dignity just like people can.  If that is what we want to do, we can commit to doing it and do it well—all we would really have to do is just not change anything and just keep doing what we are doing or not doing as the case may be.  And we would die a slow death.  But I would like to believe that God has bigger and better plans for Bethlehem Covenant. 

          Revitalizing a stagnant or declining church is difficult, make no mistake about it.  Half the battle is getting people to realize that the church needs revitalization.  Let’s face it, most of us are pretty biased when it comes to our opinion of our church.  And part of the reason for that is that we mistakenly look at it just like that—its’ our church.  We think it really is our church instead of God’s church.  So if we are happy, well then God must be happy and everyone else should be.  We love our church so we can’t fathom why others wouldn’t want to be here.  We can’t understand why some come only once or twice and don’t come back.  But part of the problem is that we want people, we expect people to come to us, rather than us going to them.  And we think people in this day and age will want and like what worked 50 years ago.  But it’s a bigger issue than church revitalization.  When it comes down to it, it may be difficult to revitalize a church, but it’s not because the church is hard to revitalize.  That’s not our biggest problem.  The problem is that a church gets revitalized, transformed, when people get revitalized and transformed.  Most importantly, we need to talk about revitalization of ourselves and that is really difficult.  That’s where it gets personal—but that’s the key issue to our growth as a church—we need to grow spiritually as individuals and as a whole community. 

          We like to remember the “good old days” when things were so much better.  But here’s a verse you don’t hear that often from the Bible—Ecclesiastes 7:10 says, “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’  For it is not wise to ask such questions.”  Now, it’s not that we can’t look at the past and learn from it.  But every era has its own problems as well as opportunities.  The point is, we aren’t in the past, we are living in the present.  Or should I say, we should be living in the present.  One of the questions we need to ask about our church is, “What year is it here?”  “What year is it here?  What time are we living in?”  Are we in the present and looking toward the future, or are we living in the past and yearning for the “good old days?”  We need to make the future like the “good old days” by revitalizing ourselves, instead of sitting around lamenting that things are not what they used to be.  The trouble is, instead of doing the hard work of changing and growing and reaching out, we find it easier to keep the status quo, to keep things stable and the same—we hold down the fort and just try to survive.  But that is not what God wants.  Don’t believe me?  Look at our text for this morning from Matthew 25.  The parable of the talents.  Jesus tells this parable to describe what the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God will be like or is like.  He says it will be like a man going on a journey who calls his servants together and entrusts his property to them.  To one servant he gives five talents of money—we’ll call that $5,000 which is a ballpark figure in today’s terms.  To a second servant he gives $2,000.  To the third he gave one talent or a thousand dollars.  We are told that they were given the money according to their ability—that could be their trustworthiness or their experience or ingenuity among other things.  The servant who received $5,000 immediately went out and put the money to work and doubled it.  So also the one with the $2,000—he doubled his as well.  But the one who had received the one talent, the one grand, went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. 

          After a long time the master returns and settled accounts with them.  To the one who had received five talents, the master said, “Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness.”  The same went for the servant who had been given the $2,000.  Then the man who had received the one talent came.  “Master, he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground.”  He doesn’t invest the money or try to do anything with it.  He’s afraid to do anything. 

          What is the master’s reaction?  It’s not good.  It’s not, “God bless you for playing it safe with my money.  Rather it is: “You wicked, lazy servant!  So you knew I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?  Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”  And later he says, “Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Wow.  Strong words there.  Strong and vivid imagery from Jesus in this parable.  Sometimes the truth hurts.  Probably the main point of this parable is that the goal, the idea of the kingdom of God is not to simply preserve, but to multiply.  That’s how the kingdom works.  The one guy just plays it safe—he gets the one talent and kicks into survival mode.  He just buries the money.  Hear me well….this parable is not about money.  It’s not telling us what stocks to invest in or what business to go into so we can double our money.  It is about the kingdom of God and what sort of people God rewards.  The message of this parable is pretty clear—God rewards those who do something—more specifically, God rewards those who are courageous and trusting and willing to take a risk.  God honors those who have some courage to take action and make things happen.  God doesn’t like those who play it safe.  He isn’t happy with those who do not use what He has given to them.  God has given us gifts of money and talents and different passions and spiritual gifts to be used to help others and glorify Him.  We need to ask ourselves, are we as a church playing it too safe?  And if so, are we tired of that?  Are we ready for something different? 

          Truth be told, there are a lot of churches that are like the servant who received the one talent.  They are afraid and so they don’t act.  They just keep things as they are.  These are churches who love tradition more than they love God.  Churches that make decisions based entirely on what is best for them.  Churches that expect people to come to them.  These are churches that are nostalgic but not prophetic.  Churches that want what they like rather than what will reach others.  Churches that are a safe haven from change instead of a change agent in the world.  Churches that think they are pleasing to God when they are not. 

          Let’s be brutally honest and try to apply this parable to our own church.  First, how are we becoming a church that God can entrust with even more?  How are we becoming a church that God can entrust with even more?   In what ways have we been faithful with little so that God will entrust us with much?  What is it that we have done and are doing that shows we have been faithful stewards of the resources God has given us?  Second, how do we use what Jesus has given us right now and multiply it for the glory of God and for the good of our neighbor?  How do we use the people we have, the building we have, the money we have, to glorify God and serve others?  And thirdly, and this is the big one, in what ways have we played it safe?  In what ways in the past and in the present are we playing it safe—too safe?  In other words, where have we been like the third servant who got the one talent and buried it in the ground?  I submit to you that for too long here we have had a play-it-safe mentality and it has kept us from reaching our full potential—it has kept us from being all that God wants us to be.  God can’t entrust us with more because we are afraid to step out in faith.  For too long we have been afraid to use our money to further our mission.  Perhaps….I say perhaps we’ve been cheap with our money and stingy with our faith in God.  Perhaps that is because many people in the past grew up in the great depression and knew the value of money more than people do today.  Some good wise principles come from those who went through the Great Depression, make no mistake about it.  But it seems at times this church has taken half measures just to ensure our survival rather than radical steps of transformation that will produce fruit.  Sure we’ve used some money to improve our building and that has been much needed.  But perhaps it shows how much we take care of ourselves and worry about our building rather than worrying about intentionally reaching out to others in specific ways.  God forgive us if we only take care of ourselves and our building and neglect our neighborhood and our mission.  God forgive us if we close our doors and no one even notices or cares that we are gone.  God forgive us if we close our doors and die with a large inheritance that was not used to further God’s kingdom in this little corner of the world.

          We have a large sum of money invested with the Covenant and we use the interest on that to bring down our deficit each year.  We have been blessed from one person in particular who left us a lot of money—Evelyn Norsten.  We may be getting another fairly large sum of money soon.  What are we doing with the money?  Are we burying it in the ground because we are afraid?  I have heard others suggest this, so it’s not just my wild idea.  Are we stepping out in faith or are we waiting until the church dies and then we give all our piles of money back to the conference so they can use it to plant new and vibrant churches?  Are we willing to take risks and see our efforts blessed and doubled by God or are we scared to use our resources?  If we are saving our money for a rainy day, maybe we should look out the window and see whether it is just raining or if it’s really already pouring.  And trust me, I wrote that line not knowing the weather forecast.  Maybe God is trying to tell us something for sure.  What would God say to us?  Would God say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things”?  Or would God say to us, “You wicked, lazy servant!”  That’s tough to hear about ourselves, but we need to really think about that.  I know I do—I see ways in which I as your pastor have played it too safe.  I’ve played it too safe in my own spiritual life and in giving direction to the church.  But we are in critical period of our church’s life cycle and we need to examine where we are at and where we want to go.  Are we playing it too safe?  It’s worth thinking about and pondering…and trust me, we will ponder that question together.  And if we are playing it safe, are we tired of doing that?  If we decide we want to play it too safe and not step out in faith, maybe God has plans to use our resources elsewhere with another church.  But I think God has plans for us here.  God wants to use us in a mighty way and when He does, when we allow that and go with that, there will be a great story to tell.  So let’s be determined to use our talents to glorify God and to serve our community.  Let’s be determined not to bury our talents in the ground, but to put our resources to work to further God’s Kingdom.  Amen.