"Weak Days" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 09.13.26

"Weak Days" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 09.13.26

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Taste and see that the Lord is good. That is our theme for this school year. Many folks in the world have a bad taste in their mouth for the church. My guess is that they expected better. My guess is that the church did a better job at conforming to the world rather than being transformed by the renewing of the mind so that we might discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. I do believe that a church that knows who it is, that is, knows it is the body of Christ, a church that seeks the renewing of the mind becomes more reflective of who Jesus is. And I do believe that when the world gets a taste of that, it will be so good for them that they'll want more than a taste. And hope will no longer be defined as down the road and pie in the sky. But hope would be realized, lived now. We have an anxious world. Let us fill it with some good news. Let's start turning it around for our children and our children's children, and for Jesus. From Romans the fourteenth chapter, verses one through twelve, hear the word of God. Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on slaves of another? It is before their own Lord that they stand or fall, and they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day observe it for the Lord, and those who eat eat for the Lord, since they give thanks to God, while those who abstain, abstain for the Lord and give thanks to God, for we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord, so then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's, and for to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. So then each one of us will be held accountable to God. This is the word of the Lord. Welcome those who are weak in the faith. It is a word for those who are strong in the faith, right? When I became a pastor, I quickly realized that one of the things that I was called to do, aside from teaching and preaching and weddings and funerals, was to get men to go see a doctor. It's true. Often a spouse would call and say, He won't listen to me, maybe he'll listen to you. Anyway, if you're a man, go to a doctor, okay? Anyway, this is to say that on Friday afternoon I went to see my doctor, a yearly heart checkup. I was welcomed, first welcome, by a 72-year-old woman whose uh job it was to give an ultrasound on my heart. Let me tell you, when they handed out personality, she got a double portion. I didn't have to guess what she was thinking, it was all out there. She called me honey and sweetie, and I wondered how she knew that. She asked what I did. I told her, and she said, Are Presbyterians shrinking or are they growing? I said, I think Westminster's doing all right, but our denomination, not so good. It's it's shrinking. And she said, Why do you think that is? And I said, Well, a lot of uh a lot of Presbyterian churches are country churches, and a lot of people have moved out of the country. Um and then I paused and I said, I think there's something we're not being. And she said, Can you move your elbow farther under your pillow and take a breath and hold it? And she said, I don't go to church. She said I should. She said, You never see me at one of those blue stocking churches. You know what that is, don't you? She said. And I wanted to say, know it, I live it. But yes, I said, I knew what it was. Formally structured, ordered, uncharismatic, highly educated. She said, I'm just an old country girl. A seventy-two-year-old country girl in a white lab coat holding the latest in sonogram technology. She brought a warmth to a rather sterile room. I liked her. I really liked her. I enjoyed her. She, an open book, she was real, she made me laugh. I felt better for just being with her. I liked her so much that I was tempted to be evangelical. Don't let that scare you, okay? That is, I was tempted to invite her to Westminster. I was thinking that if I could meet her at the door and introduce her to the right folks, that doesn't mean some of you are the wrong folks. Some of you are the wrong folks for her. I would want her to be comfortable. I would want her to be welcome to fit in. I could introduce her to the right people, and then after a while, to the rest of you, or some of you. Um I was tempted to be evangelical. Instead, uh she went out the door, and before she did, I said, Do you spend this much time with all your patients, or is it just because you like me? And she rolled her eyes and shut the door, and I heard her laugh all the way down the hallway, and then tell a nurse, tell a nurse down the hallway that I was full of it. Uh she said, I don't go to church, I should. She said, I don't go to one of those blue stocking churches. You know what that is, don't you? Paul says, Welcome those who are weak in faith. The way Paul begins this pericope and the way he ends this pericope, I get the sense that he really doesn't believe he's not an advocate for division, that he's not into this weak of faith and strong of faith stuff. I don't think he was drawing a line between vegetarians and those who eat cheeseburgers in paradise. No line between blue stocking and I'm just a country girl. I get the sense what Paul is doing is using a rhetorical device, a way of pulling the reader in. Welcome those who are weak in faith. I mean, what if I said that to you? Welcome those who are weak in faith. By just saying that I have labeled you what? Strong in faith. Doesn't that make you feel good? Strong in faith. Isn't it great? To be strong in faith. And I know a thing or two about being strong in faith. If you come into my office, you will see on the wall a couple of diplomas that say, I am strong of faith. Thirty-four years in ministry, preparing and preaching Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Some of you are just now dragging yourself back into church after a long summer. Look, I've been here. I've been here. Strong of faith. And I didn't draw that line. You did. When you advertised for my job, you said, we want our next pastor to be strong in the pulpit. We want a strong leader, we want a teacher who will help us grow in our faith. And then the committee went out and interviewed people, and they all said no, and you got me. The point is that when you start labeling a person or a group of people strong in faith, it goes to your head. You think yourself better than anybody else. Holier than thou. Do you believe that there are strong faith people and weak faith people? The way I see it in Jesus, we all try. I mean, just think of Peter. Strong faith, Peter. If it is truly you, Lord, command me to come out onto this water. And the Lord commands, and Peter, of all people of such strong faith, walks on water. Strong faith, he did it until he couldn't do it. Weak faith sank like his name, sank like a stone, a rock. The faith we believe in, the faith we trust in is the faith of Jesus Christ, not our own faith. Oh Lord, save me. Peter, faithful until he's not faithful. Jesus, faithful. Peter faithful, knowing who Jesus is, I know who you are, you are the Christ. And twelve seconds later, Peter unfaithful, for Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. Peter's a rock until he's a stone. Peter, who loves Jesus, loves Jesus, loves Jesus, denies Jesus three times, three times before the sun rises. Was Peter strong or weak in faith? Answer yes. Paul says it's not about us. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. Sophie says it this way There's nothing we can do to make God make us love us anymore. There's nothing we can do to make God love us any less. We are so loved. We are so loved. That's what we gotta get in our heads. When I would come home to my mom and dad's, my mom would always make dark cherry jello with dark cherries in it with whipped cream. It is the food of the gods. If you don't know, taste and see. It is ambrosia. Of course it won't taste as good as my mother's. It was just filled with love. Nothing will taste as good as that one. God's love is bigger than that. God's love would be like for me to come home today and and open the refrigerator door, and my refrigerator suddenly just filled with dark cherry jello with cherries with whipped cream. Just filled with it. And I'd be like, whoa, this is the best day ever. And I'd shut the refrigerator door and I'd walk because I gotta get dressed, get out of these Sunday clothes, and I gotta get on my eating jello clothes. And as I go through the house, there on the table a large sheet cake full of dark cherry jello with whipped cream on top. On the table, just ready for me. Well, I go into the bedroom and there besides my bed in champagne glasses beside my night nightstand. There would be in champagne glass, just whipped cream and cherry, and there it would be, and then I'd go to the closet, and in my closet, there would be no more clothes, there'd be just these cans of dark cherries and boxes of jello. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? If we could grasp the width and the length and the height and the depth of God's love for us in Christ Jesus, we would just be overwhelmed. We'd have so much. And loving you when you're sinking like a stone. Hear Jesus saying to you, Well, that's my boy. That's my boy. I love it. That's that's my girl. That's the one I love. This one here. Know that you are loved. And if you can grasp that, since you have this love sometime today or tomorrow before you or before you die, let someone in on the bounty that you have. Bring some cherry jello with whipped cream over to their situation. Just let them have a taste. It will change the world. It will change the world. Why do you think the church is shrinking? She said. I said, I think it's something we're missing. She doesn't go to church. She called me honey and sweetie. She spent so much time with me and my heart. I don't think she does that for just anyone. Just me. Just me. And she shut the door and she laughed down the hallway. And she told another attendant that I was so filled with it. Filled with love. I got a taste of love there in that room. And where two or more are gathered. Church. You can't miss it. It'll change the world.