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Finding the Forge: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in US and in our community.
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The sermon you're about to listen to comes from our Spring
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Mixtape 2025 Non Series Sermon Series.
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Rather than a series, this will be a collection of sermons based
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on what God is leading us to preach on this spring.
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You can find more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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This morning Scripture comes from First Samuel chapter 13.
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There were no blacksmiths in the land of Israel in those days.
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The Philistines wouldn't allow them for fear they would make
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swords and Spears for the Hebrews.
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So whenever the Israelites needed to sharpen their
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plowshares, picks, axes, or sickles, they had to take them
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to a Philistine blacksmith. The charges were as follows, 1/4
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of an ounce of silver for sharpening A plowshare or a
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pick, and an eighth of an ounce for sharpening an axe or making
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the point of an ox code. So on the day of the battle,
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none of the people of Israel had a sword or spear, except for
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Saul and Jonathan. This is the word of God for the
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people of God. Amen.
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Thanks, Asher. Well, I have a practice of
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asking God each year to give me a, a word and a scripture
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passage to kind of become the interpretive filter, right?
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Kind of an advanced word for what that year is going to hold,
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or more specifically, what God is wanting to do in me over the
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course of that year, right? It helps me understand what
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God's doing in the midst of the different things that are
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happening around me and to me throughout that year.
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And so here are a few of the words that God has given me over
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the past few words. In 2021, it was be prepared.
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If you've ever seen The Lion King, all I could think of was
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Scar and those guys singing that song.
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Be prepared, right? Luckily it turned out a little
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better than that. And what I sensed God was maybe
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doing something new was that he brought us here, right?
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He brought us here. He took us from Trinity and
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Mullica Hill where we had been serving, and he brought us here
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to Collingswood. And that was definitely
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something I changed. We needed to be prepared for.
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Then the next year in 2022, the Word was rest and God gave me
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the Scripture. This wasn't about, you know,
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sitting back and taking vacations and taking naps and
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lounging about like that. The verse that God gave me came
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from Jeremiah 616 and said this is what the Lord says.
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Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths.
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Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find
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rest for your souls. This was a season over the the
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2022 year that that God was inviting me into a deeper
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engagement with him and with the practices of the way of Jesus.
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For me personally it was an invitation to re engage some
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things that have kind of slipped by the wayside and to build some
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other things that were new for me into my rhythm of life.
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Things I hadn't been doing, but that idea of finding our rest in
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God. The next year, 2023, the Word
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was faithful. Faithful.
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If you remember 2023, that was the year where we had to make a
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lot of decisions about the future of our church.
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And in the midst of all of that, there wasn't really a whole lot
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I could do about the things happening in our denomination,
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the things happening in our conference.
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But God gave me the word faithful.
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And this verse from First Corinthians 4, he said, now it
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is required that those who have been given a trust must prove
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faithful. And it was just a word for me
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over the course of that whole year that no matter what was
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happening, what was going on, what God was asking of me was to
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be faithful with each little step.
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Just be faithful to what had been entrusted to me. 2024 we
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turned to the calendar, and my word changed from faithful to
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fight. I thought we were ready to go,
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you know, but God wanted to frame what that fight looked
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like for me. And so the verse he led me to
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was Ephesians 6, chapter 12, or Ephesians 6, verse 12, which
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says our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
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rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this Dark
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World, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
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realm. I needed the reminder that there
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is an enemy out there, but it's not any any person, right?
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Our enemy that we fight against is the enemy of our souls.
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It gave me a lens through which to view the different
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interactions I had with people and situations that changed the
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way that I engaged in some of those different situations.
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Now my word for this year is forge, forge, FORGE.
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There aren't a lot of places in Scripture that talk about forges
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or blacksmiths. This one that we read this
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morning from First Samuel. But most of the other ones are
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from the prophets, and they deal with those blacksmiths, those
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Craftsman who fashioned idols in their hands that people then
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took and worshipped. But the verses that God gave me
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to go along with it weren't this one from First Samuel, although
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that one came along somewhere in the process.
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But the two verses that God gave me to interpret Zechariah 13
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Chapter 9, I keep doing that 13 verse 9, it says this third I
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will put into the fire. I will refine them like silver
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and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I
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will answer them. I will say they are my people
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and they will say the Lord is our God.
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And Malachi chapter 3, verse 2 to 4 says, But who can endure
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the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?
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For he will be like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap.
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He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.
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He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and
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silver. Then the Lord will have men who
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will bring offerings in righteousness.
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And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to
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the Lord as in the days gone by, as in former years.
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These are passages that speak about fire and metal, but not in
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the sense of forging and shaping, in the in the sense of
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refining, right? And they speak about God's work
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among a remnant of people who who had remained faithful and
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who were willing to undergo that kind of process, that kind of
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refining process to make them into what God wanted them to be.
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And a promise that as that happened, as God worked that in
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them, he would make them into his people again.
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So this morning I want to dive a little bit more into this idea
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of forges and blacksmiths, even though I really have no actual
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expertise in all of this. I'm going to pretend like I do
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and tell you some things this morning.
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But at its most basic, a forge is both the workshop of a
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blacksmith, right? But then also specifically that
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furnace that plays a central role in the work that takes
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place in the blacksmith's workshop.
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And blacksmiths were once very common across not just America,
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but down through history. They were kind of a central
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point within a community where they created and repaired the
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tools that were essential to the life of the community, right?
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Whether that was for agriculture or for industry or even the
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weapons of war, right? And this this work was done by
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heating metal in that forge in order to make it shapeable, and
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then primarily by using a hammer and an anvil to form that metal
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into the desired shape so that it could accomplish its intended
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purpose. Now I want to add this image
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into our picture of what the church is and what it does,
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right? There are many different images
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that have been used to help people understand God's purpose
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for the church and how he wants to use it in His plan.
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And each one of those, like our mosaic of the atonement, we
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talked about in length, right? It helps us understand more
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fully the purpose of the local church.
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And so some people will speak about churches as hospitals,
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right? Places where for the healing of
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sin, sick souls. It's a hospital where people
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come to be healed. Others will talk about the local
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church as a nursery or a vineyard.
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It's a place where people can be planted and they can put down
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roots and be established and cultivate to the point where
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they bear fruit. Others think about the local
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church as a school, a place where people are trained and
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educated and then sent out to do that trade, to do that
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profession right. But this morning I want to add
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to that this image of the church as a forge, a place where God
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forms people using the heat, the pressure of experience and
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suffering to form people into tools that in God's hand he can
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use to build his Kingdom in the world.
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So let me bring us back to our our Scripture reading this
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morning from first Samuel 13, this passage, it comes right in
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the midst of a transitional period, a couple different
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transitions happening. One is God is transitioning
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Israel from a nation that's ruled by judges, right?
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People he raised up to deliver the people for a certain reason.
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And then for a season of time, they would rule over the people.
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He was transitioning from those judges to a monarchy, right to a
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Kingdom, beginning with King Saul.
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You might remember that story. We talked about it last fall a
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little bit as we were looking at David's life.
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But it was a transition not just of government, but of self
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identity, right? As the people began to to shift
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their mindset from relating primarily to their tribe of
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people and the tribe that they were a part of to being part of
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the nation of Israel, right? This was part of why they wanted
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a king. And they were so anxious to have
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a king like the other nations, somebody that they could rally
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behind and who could unite the tribes.
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They were moving from this loose confederation of tribes into
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really developing a national identity as the people of
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Israel. But this was also a time of, of
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technological transition, right? People throughout the ancient
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Near East at that time, they were moving out of the Bronze
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Age and into the Iron Age, which meant the development of
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stronger, harder, sharper tools and weapons, right?
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And as we've seen throughout history, those who control the
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technology are able to maintain power.
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And so in First Samuel 13, we're told that during this time of of
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transition and upheaval and newness, there were no
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blacksmiths in Israel. You see, this was a strategic
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position taken by the Philistines, Israel's more
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powerful neighbor and enemy. The Philistines wouldn't permit
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the Israelites to have blacksmiths and forges because
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they wanted to control what kind of tools were being produced.
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And specifically, they wanted to restrict the availability of
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weapons in Israel. So the Israelites, if they
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needed to have their farm tools sharpen their sickles and their
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picks and their axes and all those things that Asher read for
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us, they had to go down to the Philistines to have those things
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sharpened. It's to such an extent that
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we're told at the end of the passage that only King Saul and
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his son Jonathan had swords. Can you imagine?
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To reframe it just a little bit, to think about David and Goliath
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for just a second, we tend to be pretty hard on those soldiers
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who are lined up there with King Saul.
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No one being willing to go out and face Goliath changes it a
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little bit. If you think they're going out
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there with sickles and pruning hooks, shovels, picks, they're
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not going out there with swords and Spears.
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They didn't have those things. Only King Saul and his son
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Jonathan had swords. The Israelites had to go to the
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Philistines for any work they needed done.
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And I think there's a spiritual analogy here that I want to take
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some time to develop this morning.
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And in in the midst of our consumerist approach to church,
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right, where we look for a church where we like the worship
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and we like the preaching and we like the programs that are
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offered. And if they, the church doesn't
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have those things and we'll leave that church and we'll go
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look for another church that does.
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In the midst of that kind of context, I think we've given up
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as the church the responsibility of forming people, and instead
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we've outsourced that work to the Philistines, to the culture
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all around us. We look to our culture and allow
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the culture to be the one that shapes our values and our
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practices and our way of living. And I wonder, where are the
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churches that would operate as a forge?
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Where are the churches that would operate as a forge?
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Living in this world provides plenty of heat in our lives,
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right? And just like metal, if you
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don't know too much about metallurgy.
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And I learned this all this week.
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So we're good. We're I'm, I'm just sharing the
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little bit of bread that I found with you.
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All that heat, the heat of life, can either make us brittle or it
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can make us stronger, right? Metal is made stronger through a
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process called tempering. The blacksmith heats up the
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metal till it gets nice and hot. It'll bring it out and hammer it
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out and fold it back on itself and plunge it into the water and
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it cools rapidly, right? And in that process the metal,
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the iron, gets stronger. Where are the churches that are
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offering that kind of cooling water so that people can come in
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from the heat of life and be tempered and made stronger?
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Are we a place of relief from the fires of life where people
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can get stronger before they're thrust back into it all?
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If we continue this analogy, if we see God, then as the
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blacksmith, he's the one hammering us into shape.
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Where are the churches? Where are the churches that'll
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provide an anvil for God to hammer against?
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I think that Anvil is community, all right?
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Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly being formed by
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our environment, by the stories we're being told, by the habits
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we practice, by the relationships that we're part
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of, right? And this all happens over the
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course of time and through the experiences we have as we move
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through life. This is the process of formation
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that happens when we don't even realize that we're being formed.
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But the church, the church is called to be a community of
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intentional formation, right? Where the Holy Spirit is forming
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us by, by biblical truth, by spiritual practices, and by
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community, right? And this again, it happens over
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time. We don't just wake up 1 morning
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and we're suddenly transformed, at least not most of us.
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It happens over time, and often it happens as we learn to
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suffer. I don't want to get too literal
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with my analogy here, but I want to push it just a bit further.
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Here's how I envision the church operating as a forge.
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God. The Holy Spirit is the
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blacksmith, right? Who wants to shape us into
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something useful for building his Kingdom And the experiences
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that the suffering of life are that heat and that fire, right?
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That that heat in the fire that just kind of stays constantly on
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in that furnace. Has anyone ever ever actually
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gotten to a place where you don't feel the fire of life on
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some level, on some aspect of you?
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I mean, it just it's there, right?
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But there are sometimes right where where the blacksmith says
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to do what we need to do. We got to make this hotter,
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right? And so pump those bellows and,
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and the fire gets hotter. And when that fire gets hotter,
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it, it either makes us malleable, shapeable, moldable,
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or it makes us brittle and actually weaker depending on
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whether we're in the care of the blacksmith or not.
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And in that forge, that workshop.
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Where God is working on us, the Holy Spirit, He pulls us out of
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those fires of life and He shapes us with His word, with
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His truth as the hammer of spiritual forces, spiritual
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print practices shape us and mold us over time.
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He does that as we learn to apply the truth, He'll bring
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that and He'll hammer us with that.
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I'm assuming most of you have never actually tried
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blacksmithing. Maybe I I hear there's ATV show
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where people compete in some blacksmithing things.
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Maybe you've seen that before, but but have you ever tried to
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hammer a nail into a board show of hands?
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All right, most of you have at least tried to do that.
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Maybe some of you have actually succeeded.
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Good job. But if you ever tried to hammer
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a nail into a board while you're just holding onto the board,
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right? You've got the nail in there,
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you're just holding and you try to hammer it in.
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How well does that work? Not very well, because what do
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you need? You need a force on the other
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side of it, right? You need pressure on the other
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side of it. It's the same with with
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blacksmithing, right? If you're holding that hot piece
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of metal and just trying to hammer it, you're going to shape
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it some. But is it going to be shaped
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into the way you want it to be? Not really.
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If you really want to shape that piece of hot metal, if you want
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to be effective, you need an anvil to hammer against.
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I believe in the church, that anvil is community.
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Community, right? God's doing this work on us and
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we need community to help us be formed.
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And I don't want to be too generic here.
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When I'm speaking about community, I'm not talking about
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your car club or your pickleball community or your gardening
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community or your book club or anything like that.
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It's not that I'm against those things, but those kind of
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affinity groups, they're not bad.
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They're just not going to form us into the way of Jesus, right?
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That's not generally why they exist.
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It's not their purpose. It's not what brings them
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together. But I'm also not talking just
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about the people seated in the pews nearby to you, the people
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we worship with on Sunday mornings or, or your Sunday
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school class or your Bible study, sometimes even even our
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life groups, right? Again, those are good things.
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They're important relationships we need to have.
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I'm not saying there's just one specific kind of community that
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we need. There are different levels to
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it, different layers to, and those other things can play a
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part in that. But what I am talking about and
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what I think is vitally important to our being formed by
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the Spirit is a small, intentional community in which
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you can work out what God is doing in your life, where you
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can be honest and vulnerable and there's acceptance and
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accountability and love and forgiveness can be offered.
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What I have in mind is what our Methodist family has called a
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discipleship band. It's a group of three to five
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people of the same gender, men with men, women with women, who
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meet together regularly, ideally weekly, in order to answer
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questions like this. How is your soul?
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You know, a lot of times we'll walk up to people and church,
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say, hey, how you doing? How often do you hear somebody
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say, how's your soul? Where in your life are you
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seeing struggles? Where are you experiencing
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success? Where's God helping you?
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How's God speaking to you this week through his Word and
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through his Spirit? Is there any sin you need to
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commit, not commit? Is there any sin you need to
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confess? Who?
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Jeremy? Maybe you should take it from
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here on out. Is there any sin you have
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committed you need to confess? And are there any secrets that
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you want to share that we can help carry with you?
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And then pray together and ask God to help.
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And then you pray for those things through the week.
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They're deep questions. They're real questions.
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They're intentional but not impossible questions.
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They're the kind of questions that cooperate with the work
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that God is doing to form us into tools in his hand, the kind
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of community that can act as that anvil against which the
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blacksmith can shape us, the anvil that makes the hammering
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and the work more effective. In JRR Tolkien's masterpiece The
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Lord of the Rings, we're told of a series of rings of power that
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were created for each of the major races in the fictional
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world that Tolkien created. There were men and elves and
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dwarves and orcs and all kinds of other things, but these rings
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were made for men and elves and dwarfs.
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And we're told that unknown to the recipients of those rings,
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there was another ring that was formed, forged secretly in the
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fires of Mount Doom to rule over those other rings and their
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wearers. If you've already started to
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make the connection to sin, I don't think you're far off.
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And this one ring could only be destroyed in those same fires in
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which it was created, where it was forged.
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But throughout this saga, we also see a community being
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forged, right? It's described in the first in
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the title of the first book as the Fellowship of the Ring.
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People from these diverse backgrounds, even different
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races, who who came together around a common mission to
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destroy this ring. And over the course of the
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story, the Fellowship ends up getting split up and divided.
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But we see 2 examples of the kind of committed, intentional
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community that I'm talking about here that that stick through the
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whole story. We see Frodo and Sam, two
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hobbits whose lives have been marked by comfort, right?
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They live in the Shire, where everything is green, and they
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have these nice little Hobbit holes and they smoke their pipes
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and they eat second breakfast, which, who wants to add that to
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their rule of life here, right? Second breakfast.
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I'm for it. And these hobbits, they they get
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swept up into this grand mission, and over the course of
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the story, they become the kind of friends who can carry one
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another in the most difficult places and situations of life.
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But we also see Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli, an elf, a man
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or a man, an elf and a dwarf who couldn't be more different from
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one another, but who, because of their commitment to the mission,
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their commitment to seeing this ring destroyed, they determined
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that they're going to stand shoulder to shoulder with one
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another through the journey, through the battles, through
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whatever may come. And without those relationships,
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without those little bands, those spiritual friends, this
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mission would have failed. They never would have been able
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to destroy the ring. And these characters, along with
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everything and everyone they loved, would have been plunged
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into the shadow of evil. We need those kinds of
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relationships, we need those kinds of friendships if we are
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going to accomplish all that God has asked of us to do.
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And we understand like the big mission, but each of us have a
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specific role that God has called us to play in that
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mission. And friends, we too are in a
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battle, right? But even in the midst of the
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battle, God's not forming us into weapons of war, right?
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The weapons used in this battle aren't people.
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The weapons used in this battle are our prayer and the word of
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God. And, and these things as, as God
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forms us, he's looking beyond the battle, He's looking to the
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reality that he has already won the war and he's in the business
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of building his Kingdom. And so we're not being formed
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into swords, we're being formed into things like plows.
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We're not being shaped into Spears.
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We're being shaped into pruning hooks and Siths to be able to
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harvest the fruit. And I believe God is calling us
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as a church to become a forge again, to become a workshop
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where God can pull us out of the fires of life, to strengthen us
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and to shape us into the kind of people who can build His Kingdom
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with him. We're going to talk about bands
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more in the weeks and months to come because I believe God wants
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to form us into Kingdom building tools.
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And he can do that most effectively in the midst of that
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kind of intentional community today.
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I just want to plant that seed in your mind.
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I want to get you thinking about how God is forming you and who
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he's using to do that. Who is part of your fellowship
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that is working with you, standing shoulder to shoulder
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with you to accomplish the mission that God has called you
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to? Who needs to be a part of it?
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Because, friends, none of us can do it on our own.
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We'll never make it. We'll never make it.
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So I encourage you to carry these thoughts this morning, to
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hold on to them, to ask God to continue to speak to you as we
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engage another aspect of God's shaping work in us, the
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sacrament of Holy Communion, whereby God pours His grace into
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our lives as we identify as his people, as we celebrate what God
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has done to accomplish the victory that's already been
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secured.