As you've noticed, the media is still immersed in the Columbine tragedy.  Recent articles have spent much energy decrying the cruelty children face because of peer pressure and school cliques, kids excluding kids, the popular vs. the unpopular.  But there's nothing new about this.  People have been choosing up sides since the Garden of Eden.

          A recent movie, "October Sky," illustrates this.  Homer Hickam, a West Virginia high school student was faced with an important decision.  Homer was part of a small group of friends.  They weren't jocks or rich kids, but they knew what it meant when you associated with the wrong kid, especially John, that red-haired pimply-faced nerd that no one ever sat with at lunch.  One day, Homer learned that weird John knew a lot about rockets.  More than anything else, Homer Hickam wanted to learn rocketry, and now he was faced with a dilemma - would he follow his interest and publicly talk to John?  Or would he do what all the others expected, and avoid John like a plague?

          The scene is the lunchroom with Homer is walking over to see John at another table.  His friends are saying, "No, no, don't do it - don't talk to him -- no one will ever talk to you again!"  But Homer went anyway.  "What do you want?" asked John.  "I hear you know about rockets," said Homer.  "Well, what you do want to know about them?"  And thus began a friendship that would result in the Rocket Boys, a gang of four adventuresome guys who brought brief glory to the sleepy town of Coalwood, and the start of a distinguished career in aeronautics for Homer Hickam.

          This incident begs a question - what if Homer had followed his friends' advice and avoided John?  What if Homer never had the courage to speak to this brilliant boy, this boy the others called a "loser"?  What would Homer - and the world - have lost if he had followed social order and stayed within his own circle of friends?  What would Jesus have done?  Our text will tell us clearly.

          Today we begin a monthly visit to one the five purposes of the Church.  On the back of your bulletin you'll find the Five Purposes of Epiphany's ministry - Joyful Worship, Faithful Service, Positive Outreach, Loving Fellowship and Biblical Nurture.  Today we'll consider the fourth purpose:  Loving Fellowship.

          But why start with the Fourth Purpose - why not the First?  Because today we have our first Baptism at Epiphany, and Baptism is the central part of Fellowship in the Christian Church.  The purpose of Fellowship is not just potlucks or socials.  Fellowship is all the church does to knit its members together for love and support.  Fellowship is how the church grows closer together and becomes a united body.  And it all begins with Baptism.

          Baptism is a sacred act, a sacrament.  Other churches may "christen" children but here we baptize them.  In Holy Baptism God takes simple water and combines it with His Word to wash away the Sin a child inherits from his parents.  Baptism carries with it all the promises of God to bring the lost into the fellowship of the redeemed.  It is a simple act but carries behind it the full power of God.

          Baptism is the sacrament of entrance into the Fellowship of the church.  You and I may enjoy getting to know new friends in our church, but until we know our True Friend, Jesus Christ, and until we're baptized in the name of Christ with the Father and the Spirit, we won't know and experience true Christian fellowship.

          In the Church, God brings us into fellowship with all kinds of people.  Some we meet here are like ourselves, and some are very different.  As I see it, Epiphany is a fellowship of survivors.  Some of us have survived failed marriages or the death of a spouse.  Some have survived disease or the heartache of wayward children.  Some of us have survived heartache in other churches and others have survived the brutality of corporate America.  Epiphany is a fellowship of survivors.  We find our strength in Jesus Christ, who is building this congregation the way He wants it.

          Jesus was a friend to all kinds of people.  He ate with the rich and the poor.  He had friends among the mighty, but more among the lowly.  He could love the Jew or the Gentile, the saint or the sinner, the thief or the hypocrite.  He loved the pretty or the homely, and He wants us to do the same.  Jesus set the stage for our understanding of fellowship in our text (Matthew 9:10-13).  Open your Bibles to page 687, and let's examine what He did.

          What Jesus did was unusual and the Pharisees had a right to be surprised.  A Rabbi normally would only associate with the people of his group, those he was teaching.  In the pecking order of the day, the sinners and the poor were the dregs of society.  When Jesus invited Tax Collector Matthew to follow Him and then had lunch with him, that was going too far.  Tax Collectors weren't good people.  They were thieves and cheats and everyone knew it.  "How can you do that?" they asked Him.  To the man who would speak the seven last words from the cross, they spoke the seven last words of the church, "We've never done it that way before."  But Jesus replied, "Healthy people don't need a doctor -- just the sick.  Learn what this means:  'I want you to show people mercy, not just give an offering and think that's enough."

          Fellowship means mercy and love.  Fellowship means caring for all, even the unlovable.  It means going the second mile with the struggling.  It means lending a helping hand to the needy.  It means loving the slob as well as the beauty.  God wants our love first, and then He wants us to pass it around.  Love is at the heart of Christian fellowship.

          But how can we love everyone, especially those hard to love?  Actually, we can't.  Only God can, and He'll help us.  Bringing some people into our fellowship is easy, but others are difficult.  Like you, I've visited churches and felt left out.  Even when they discovered I was a pastor, the cliques didn't open their doors.  Sometimes they were closed tighter.

          At a pastor's study group last Tuesday we discussed what to do with those tight little church groups.  Most pastors said they could see those groups form in the Narthex every Sunday morning.  I told them if a visitor comes to our church, we almost descend on them.  We give them a name tag, want their address, introduce them around and probably embarrass them.  It's great to be a part of new mission church, but without loving Fellowship, we're just another club, a mutual admiration society.  We must pass along God's love.

          Whether we think we're one of the beautiful and talented ones or whether we think we're the loser, God loves us all.  He loves one just as much as the next.  God loves us because we're basically unlovable and need His love.  We're really not the beautiful people we think we are.  We're sin-ugly and need cleansing.  We're broken and need repair.  We're separated from each other by sin and need God to bring us back together in Christian fellowship.

          Fellowship and love cannot be forced.  They can only be offered and accepted.  Philip Yancy, a Christian writer, related a meeting he had with Jake, a father in Chicago whose prodigal son had run away and never returned.  Jake spoke about his son Jim, who could not keep a job and wasted all his money on drugs and alcohol.  He rarely called home and brought little joy to his parents.  But he did bring a whole lot of grief.  Father Jake felt helpless.  "If only I could bring him back and shelter him and show him how much I love him," he said.  Then he added, "The strange thing is, even though Jim rejects me, his love means more to me than my other three responsible children.  Isn't that odd?"  Yes, but a father's love is often odd.  Love doesn't need an explanation.  It doesn't need a reason.

          Christian Fellowship is based on love and sometimes our love must be tough.  A rose is so tender, but it's guarded by tough thorns for protection.  That's a picture of tough and tender love.  God shows His tough love to us at times.  His love to Job was tough.  How would you like losing your children, your wealth and your health just to prove a point?  God's love to Paul was tough.  Here was a man who gave God his all, and God wouldn't even heal him.  God's tough love is unnerving and helps us depend on Him.  But His tender love in Jesus is most powerful.

          No matter how bad we are, no matter if we have failed God or failed people, He forgives us, opens His arms and welcomes us into His fellowship.  His tender love covers a multitude of sins and heals a host of hurts.  His tender mercies are new every morning.  He calls us into fellowship in the Christian Church and brings the lonely into families.

          I know some of us are struggling with troubles in life, wondering why God has been so tough on us.  I've taken my lumps and wondered what God's purpose was in them.  So whether you're toughing it out with finances, or health, or children or loneliness, God knows where you are.  And He loves you.  He opens His arms to you today and welcomes you into His Fellowship.  Open up to Him and trust Him.  Reach out to Him and let Him bring you in.

          The fellowship of the church is a hospital for sick people, not a Country Club.  We all need a refuge for the weary, not a fancy church building.  He said, "Come to me, all you who are tired and worn-out, and I will give you rest."  It's my fervent prayer that all who come through these doors will experience God's love here and want to be part of His Fellowship, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Copyright © 1999 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.