Houston Congregational Christian Church

Pastor James Manuel
4883 Russia-Houston Road
Houston, OH  45333
Phone:  937-295-3591
Email:  click here

Message Title:     The Man From Galilee

Call to Worship:     John 8:12

Scripture Reading:     Isaiah 61:1-3

Prayer:  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable unto You O Lord on this Your day.

As that song Shari and Joyce sang and the Scripture ____ read says when we join the downtrodden,  the poor,  the brokenhearted,  the captives---we join the Man from Galilee,   we join God.     As ideologies and judgments and hatred crumbles   we still see the Man on the Mule.   We see the Man from Galilee humbling Himself in the dark places of despair.        As policies and budgets and treaties come and go    we still see the Man on the Mule with those who are wallowing in a bed of sickness and regrets.          As regimes and dictators and military forces have appeared and disappeared    we still see the Man from Galilee digging stubbornly through the trash in the streets for the children we’re thrown away.     Jesus says in Matt. 19:14 to,  ‘Let the little children come to Me.’

We see Him in the night,   we see Him in the heat of the day,   we see Him in the filth.   We see the Man from Galilee with the invisible people those we have forgotten,   because often we’ve confused charity with justice.    You see charity is giving our resources to satisfy our sense of obligation,   our sense of responsibility.  Justice is giving ourselves in the pursuit of defending the widow,    giving hope to His poor,    standing with those who suffer.   And there my friends is where we will find the Man on the Mule. 

We find God when we see suffering and despair,    when we see hunger and disease,    when we see bondage and oppression,     this is where we’ll find the Man from Galilee.     I believe that the one thing we can all agree on is that God is with the vulnerable and the poor.    God is in the slums,   in the cardboard boxes where the poor live.     The Man on the Mule is in the silence of a mother who can’t take care of her child.   The Man from Galilee is in the cries heard from war torn countries.    God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives.        And my friend God is with us    if we are with them.

We still see God salvaging all He can from a hurting world.   We still see the Man on the Mule call to us     to join Him in His work of redemption.   May I say in American many religions people are more inclined to think of God as a magic Jeanie    handing out blessings of health and wealth and victory.    We are more inclined to think of God as the CEO of everything.    We are more inclined to think of God as a warm and decorative novelty item to be purchased in a Bible book store to make us feel good on the inside. 

But today my friends I want to suggest to you that the Man from Galilee is more like a garbage man.   For you see His hands and feet are dirty.   His breath stinks.   He’s not part of the society page.   And the Man on the Mule will get mud on the carpet of the living room of your heart if you will let Him.      He’ll get you out doing risky things    because the things that He wants   takes Him to the places we don’t like to think about.    For you see with all the suffering we see in the world we still see the Man on the Mule doing His work to redeem what the world has thrown away.     May I say the price is high to join God in His work    but the returns,  the rewards are even higher. 

Charity is about making us feel good,   but justice is about getting the job done for those who suffer.    The cost is high   but look what is at stake.       People----People matter to God---they should matter to us.   The world sees the poor as expendable,   invisible,   faceless.   We see them as precious because they are made in their Father’s image.   Genesis  1:27 says,  ‘So God created man in His own image.’        

There are many needs in our world today.    Around the corner and across the globe.     We are positive that God cares for the widow and the orphan.   We are positive that we need to join God in the human garbage heaps     redeeming the children who can no longer remain faceless,   invisible to us    who have so much. 

So if you ask,  ‘Does it cost to join God?’  The answer is yes.     It cost everything because it means we must die to our own wants and desires to become more like the Man on the Mule with dirty hands and a willing heart.       For you see Loving the world comes from having God’s Love in our lives.       It takes our money,    our time,   our energy   and it takes all our minds to join God.      Jesus says in Matt. 22:37 that we are to,  ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart,  and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’         Charity is easy,   Love is not.       In fact without first receiving God’s love      it’s  impossible to love back.  

And may I say we still see the Man from Galilee if we look.   We see Him who works to redeem    to heal   to bring hope.    I want to give each of us here the opportunity to see Him,   our cosmic garbage collector,  our light,  the Man on the Mule   and His Name is Jesus Christ.       Not the clean blue eyed Jesus that’s been hung on the wall.   Not the safe Jesus who looks the other way.   But the Man from Galilee with dirty feet and calloused hands.     This Jesus is called the light of the world because He exposes our darkness.    Jesus said in John 8:12,  ‘I Am the Light of the world.   Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness   but will have the light of life.’

To follow Jesus means following Him past death.   Jesus,  the Light of the world conquered death when He rose from the dead.    Because Jesus is alive we can follow Him past the grave,   past sickness and disease and into new life.           We see Him teaching and healing and freeing.    We still see the Man on the Mule shining   because He is light and now    He invites us    to be light in the world as well.

This Man from Galilee who wants to clean up the world we’ve messed up,   wants to come and clean up the life we’ve messed up..    If we want to follow Jesus    then first we must recognize that the darkness is not in a far off land    but right here in our hearts.     If we want to follow this Jesus way    we must be willing to follow Him into a dark world so that others can have hope.

Jesus calls to you now.    You,  right there in your seat,  right here in this church.    Yes you.    Jesus is calling you to come and follow Him.  As He told Peter in John 21:19,  ‘Then He said to him,  Follow Me.’       Jesus is calling you to come and receive the Light of the world.   To receive His Light   and to shine in this world.     Come follow the Man from Galilee.