GO big: REACH big, Christ Church Sermon, May 18 2025

[Music]

You're listening to a message from our

weekly worship at Christ Church in Bethl

Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

Methodist congregation with the mission

of building inclusive community, sharing

Christ's transforming love. To learn

more about the church, including how you

can join us for worship online or in

person, visit

christummc.net. Thank you for listening.

[Music]

This morning's scripture is from Matthew

chapter 28:es 19 and 20. Therefore, go

and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I

have commanded you. And surely I am with

you always to the very end of the age.

hear what the spirit is saying to the

church. Thanks be to God.

Thank you,

Susan. Let's

pray. God, may the words of my mouth and

may the meditations of our hearts be

acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our

strength and our

redeemer. Amen.

At the beginning of this week, I wrote

the sermon for this weekend. It's the

finale of our go big sermon series.

Throughout the last several weeks, we

have learned to love big and think big

and trust big and give big. And so, the

final or the finale is reach big. How do

we reach big? I had it all planned out.

I was going to tell you about how there

are four parts to the scripture that you

just heard Susan read, which is of

course known as the great commission.

And there's first the mandate to go and

make disciples. And I was going to tell

you about how mandate is another word

for a command. And we are commanded as

followers of Jesus to go and help more

people learn about what it means to

follow Jesus. Then I was going to tell

you all about how we do that. the method

for the mandate which is also in that

scripture. It's through baptizing and

teaching. We baptize people to help them

understand that when you are in Christ,

you have a new identity. And baptism is

a symbol of that new identity. And then

that teaching piece is less about

structured lesson plans and more about

how we live our lives as an example to

others of who it is that we follow. Much

like parenting where our children often

learn more from what we do rather than

what we

say, people are watching us when they

know that we are following Jesus. So the

way we live

matters. Then I was going to tell you

all about this mission field that we

have for the mandate and for the method

and how this mission field is to teach

all nations. All nations. There's no

exclusion. Everyone needs to hear this

message. And while it's important to

hear that word nations to make sure we

understand that there are no

geographical or political boundaries to

this particular commission, I was also

going to talk to you about the word all

and how important the word all is in

this

phrase. No one is ever excluded from

hearing this message about Jesus. Ever.

Ever. Seriously, no one. Not your

annoyingly chippy co-orker, not your

communely next door neighbor. Not people

whose viewpoints are different than you.

not the person who handles life in all

of its traumas different than you.

Absolutely everyone is welcome to hear

this message about Jesus and about

Jesus's love. And then finally, finally,

I was going to tell you that we as

people who are already on the path of

disciplehip with Jesus have as our

motivation for doing all of this the

knowledge that Jesus Christ is with us

always to the very end of the age.

I was going to tell you about how the

translation for the word always in this

context comes from a Greek phrase that

is used one time in the New Testament in

this place alone. And what it translates

to is always means the whole of every

day which means that Jesus doesn't leave

us not for a second. We don't ever do

this work of making disciples on our

own.

We can do all things through Christ who

gives us strength and who never leaves

us by

ourselves. That's what I was going to

tell you. I mean, I was going to use a

whole lot more words. And that is the

sermon that I preached last

night and it was fine. But something

happened on Thursday night in the life

of one of the members of our I'm gonna

get

it. Something happened Thursday night in

the life of one of the members of our

congregation.

And that's something in the course of 48

hours changed my entire perspective

about this whole go big thing about

reach big and love big and trust big and

think big and give

big. Nathan Glasser who is a member here

he's a husband he's a father of two

little girls was riding his motorcycle

down Route 19 on f on Thursday night

when he was hit by a truck.

He was lifellighted from the scene of

the accident to a hospital

downtown. When this accident happened,

Nathan's wife, Melissa, was at home with

a friend from church. This friend became

quickly a point in the storm for

Melissa. She made sure that Melissa's

mother could come and be with the

couple's two young daughters so that

Melissa could go to the hospital to be

with Nathan. This friend called me to

let me know what happened so I could

pray over the phone with them and then

called me back once she knew which

hospital they had lifellighted him to.

so I could meet Melissa and this friend

and others at the

hospital. Over several hours at the

hospital on Thursday night and into

Friday, Melissa and those of us who were

with her learned the extent of Nathan's

injuries. We learned all about the

uncertainties. And we came together to

support Melissa as she tried to

understand what was happening and to

start to make sense of everything that

was happening and some of the things

that might be to come.

The last two and a half days have been

incredibly challenging for Melissa and

Nathan as their and their families, as

I'm sure you can imagine, but Nathan has

slowly made progress. He still has a

long and a very difficult road to

recovery. And life is going to be

challenging for a while, but Nathan is

going to

live. And for that, above and beyond all

else, and before all else, we praise

God. So last night while I was visiting

Nathan, Melissa, Nathan and Melissa at

the hospital, something struck me about

what was happening with this family then

and what had happened throughout the

extreme challenges of the prior 48

hours. I realized sitting in that

hospital trauma ICU waiting room that I

had been watching go big lived out in

incredible ways since that accident

happened. And God's work in those

moments is so amazing that I thought it

needed to be shared. And so I asked

Melissa when I was with her if I could

share with you all today what how I had

seen God move. And she said absolutely

yes. She had told me then right after

she gave me permission, she said that

after her second child was born, she

went through a really hard time and she

felt really alone. Nathan is a pilot, so

obviously he travels a lot for his job.

That is his job. And Melissa had prayed

to God back then when she was going

through that hard time for a village of

people to belong to specifically

specifically so that if she ever went

through a hard time again, she would not

be

alone. And God went to work.

So last night when I got home from the

hospital, I threw that first sermon out

and I wrote this one because no matter

how eloquently I could deliver the

exeetical work that I had

done, it could never come close to

communicating what I have seen and lived

out in the last two days. And I think it

needs to be

shared. So I'm going to ask your

forgiveness in advance because clearly

the tears are close to the surface.

So, I'm going to ask you to forgive the

rough patches because it's not

refined, but I want to tell you about

how I have seen these things lived out

in real and tangible

ways. When Melissa and Nathan joined

Christ Church back in January of 2023,

they decided that they would try a

Christ group. And Melissa told me openly

she didn't really know what those were

all about, but hey, it sounded like a

good thing to do and she and Nathan

could do it together. And so, they

joined one.

And it is through that group that I have

seen this go big lived out for Melissa

and for Nathan since the

accident. When Pastor Chris talked about

love big on Easter Sunday, he described

that love like this quote, "This love is

not the kind of love that comes and

goes. It's not the kind of love that

depends on how someone else treats us.

Big love, bold love, lifechanging love.

The kind of love we're talking about is

the kind we do when no one else is

watching. This Christ group has loved

big. And despite the fact that I'm

sharing their story, they haven't done

it for recognition. They've done it

because it's the right thing to

do. You want to know what big love looks

like? Big love drops everything to drive

to the hospital late at night.

Big Love stays until 4 in the

morning. Big Love comes back the next

day and the day after that and the day

after that in predetermined shifts and

spends hours and hours sitting at a

table in a trauma ICU where they only

allow two people back at a time to see

him. And they do that so that Melissa

will know she is never

alone even when she's not out there with

him.

Big love sends updates over texts so

that Melissa doesn't have to worry about

that and she can be with

Nathan. And then we talked about think

big. And again, Pastor Chris shared

there about how when we think big, we

stop putting limits on what God can do.

We can watch as God orchestrates things

coming together in ways that we

ourselves could never have imagined or

put together for ourselves.

Melissa and Nathan spent last week on

vacation with their kids. They got home

the afternoon of the accident. And

normally this friend who was with

Melissa at their house when she found

out about the accident would never have

been there that late at night. But they

had some things to do for a small

business that Melissa owns and it had to

get done. So she was

there and she could take the call and

she could talk to the paramedic who was

treating Nathan when Melissa needed

someone else to hear it.

And one one of the Christ group members

who got the call about

Nathan got in her car when she heard

about this. She got in her car and she

immediately went to Nathan and Melissa's

house without being asked just to see

what she could do. And she ended up

driving Melissa and this other friend to

the hospital and staying there with

them. It seems unremarkable, but that

morning she told me she had filled her

tank with gas on her way to work. And

the thing is, she never fills her gas

tank on the way to work. But that day

she had thinking she should do it just

in case something came

up. Normally I'm an early to bed

girl. When I got the call about Nathan

on Thursday night a little before 10:00,

I was driving back from John'stown, a

drive other members of my family make on

a fairly regular basis, but I had not

made myself in more than a year. But

earlier that week, I had decided it was

the right thing for for me to do and the

right time for me to go. And so I went

and when they found out to which

hospital he had been airlifted, I was

only 12 minutes

away and was able to go directly to the

hospital to meet them at the exact time

they got there. From my home, that drive

to the hospital is twice that length.

None of these things again sounds like

much on their own, but put them together

and they paint a picture of a God who

thinks big enough to put all of these

little things into place so that

everyone could be where they needed to

be in order to best support these

people. And then we talked about trust

big. And Pastor Chris described this as

that big trust you have when you stand

on the edge of a cliff with everything

you know behind you and a dense fog in

front of you so thick you can't see.

Can't see the ground. You can't see

what's in front of

you. And all you hear is God's voice

saying, "Trust

me." Trust, he said, does not wait for

proof. It steps out in faith because it

knows the voice of the one who is

speaking.

Nathan M and Melissa found themselves on

the edge of that cliff this week. And

just as Pastor Chris described,

everything comfortable and known was

behind them. And they could not see in

front of them, even an inch. But Melissa

dared to

trust. She has dared to step off that

cliff and trust that God would provide

for her family while she cannot be there

with them and while she spends time at

the hospital. And God has provided.

Melissa's parents have been caring for

Melissa and Nathan's little girls this

weekend. And then this Christ group,

this Christ group stepped in and through

texts and rearranging of their own

schedules, they are making sure that

Nathan and Melissa's preschool and

kindergarten aged daughters will be

cared for this week so that their mom

can spend time at the hospital with

their dad.

I sat last night at the hospital with

Melissa and one of the group members.

And Melissa mentioned that she really

needed someone on Wednesday morning

specifically to watch one of the girls.

And I watched this Christ group member

go to work and within five minutes it

was all worked out. It was done. Child

care's planned and they're planning that

child care out through the next week and

for as long as it is needed because this

is a long road.

And then last week, Pastor Chris talked

about give big. And one of the things

that he said was that if we want to give

big, we should give without

hesitation or a half-hearted effort, but

with full hands and an open

heart. Door dash gift

cards. Time at the

hospital. Filling up the pantry and the

fridge with food for Melissa and the

kids when they are at home because

remember they just got back from the

vacation. They didn't have food.

unpacking the suitcases that were still

in the house from that trip and doing

the

laundry. If you have ever held vigil at

a hospital, then you know that coming

home to a life that has not stopped

moving while you have been enscconced in

that waiting room is

hard. And this group made home less work

and more peaceful so that Melissa and

her girls will just be able to be

together when they are there.

Nathan's injuries will prevent him from

being able to mow the lawn. Something so

simple. Within the first 24 hours of

this accident, the men's golf league, of

which Nathan is a part, has committed to

mowing his lawn for the rest of the

year. It seems so small, but it is such

a big thing. And they have set up a

schedule to do it. So, it's one less

thing they have to worry about.

And remember, this is all happening in

the last 48

hours. Giving doesn't always look like

big checks. There is a place for that

and is a time for that and we thank God

for that. But sometimes giving ms

lawn and sometimes giving goes to the

grocery store and sometimes giving does

the laundry. And that's what people

remember about those who show love.

And so finally, when we talk about reach

big, we talk about how part of reaching

big calls us to reach out of our comfort

zones and begin to understand that

living unapologetically changed lives as

devoted followers of Jesus means living

in such a way so that other people know

exactly who is Lord of our lives and who

it is that we serve.

It is an understanding that the mission

field of all nations described in that

verse earlier can again be used to

describe farway geographical locations.

But can it can also mean intentionally

witnessing to those in your own life

that need to know about God. And we are

all able to do that because we know that

God is with us every second of every

day, giving us the strength and the

courage to be able to do it.

This Christ group has gone out of their

way to live into their calling as

followers of Jesus. They have been there

every step of the journey and they have

committed to being there for the rest

that is to

come. They haven't shouted about doing

it. They haven't started preaching in

that trauma waiting room.

But sometimes the most powerful

evangelism comes in the quietest

ways. That group has provided rides to

and from the hospital. Again, they've

sat in the waiting room for

hours. One with a background of working

in hospitals has calmly and patiently

explained in layman's terms what's

happening over and over so that friends

and family members can start to

understand it. This group has put their

lives on hold to serve this family.

because they love

Jesus. And when you love Jesus, this is

what you

do. You live

differently. And you know who's seeing

this? Everyone in that hospital. The

doctors, the nurses, Nathan's family,

people in the waiting room, they're

seeing this. And it is making a

difference. Before I left the hospital

last night, I talked briefly to Nathan's

father. And I told him to let me know if

they need anything because we're here

for them as

well. And he thanked me for all that the

church had done, for the people who had

come and the ways that they had been

caring for this family. And he said,

"It's just amazing the way that you have

all been

here." And as I walked out the door of

that waiting room, I thought to myself,

"It's not amazing.

It's just what go big looks like lived

out.

It is my prayer that those who are

watching Nathan's recovery

happen, the doctors, the nurses, his

family, the other people in the waiting

room who are watching this endless cycle

of

people come and go, come to just sit and

be there with this hurting family.

It is my prayer that everyone watching

this

unfold is changed by what they

see. That's how we reach

out. And it is my prayer that this

churchi can continue to live out our

mission statement of building inclusive

community like Christ groups and sharing

Christ transforming love within and

beyond those communities. So that go big

is not just another sermon series that

we

preach, but a call to live a radically

different life. Because when we

do, lives are

changed and people find Jesus. And isn't

that what this is all

about? Let's pray.

God, we study

scripture. We look at your word and we

learn to talk to

you. And we learn to follow

you, trusting that you will be there,

not just through the good times of our

lives, but through every single moment,

even when we are in the deepest valleys.

Today, I thank God for the ways that

this group and this congregation have

lived out this call to go

big. For the ways that they have shown

your love and trusted your thought

process and believed that they could

give

big and reach big.

Today, God, I pray that we might all

follow that example. That we might

listen to this command of Jesus to go

and make disciples and realize that we

do it by living changed lives that speak

to who it is that we serve, who it is

that we love, who it is that we

follow. Give us the strength and the

courage to live it out every single day.

In Jesus name we pray. and