Would You Know a Prophet in Your Midst?
Mark
6:1-6
July 8, 2012
He left that place and came to his
hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in
the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this
man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of
power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary
and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters
here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets
are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and
in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he
laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their
unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages
teaching.
Are you a person who likes high school reunions? Many
people love their reunions. I have to say that my feelings about them range
from lukewarm to dislike. It’s the reason I haven’t gone to that many. I have a 35th one coming up this
fall, and I haven’t decided whether I want to go or not. I have gone to a few, though.
The reunion that sticks in my mind is my 15th
reunion in 1992. It stands out both because it was very well attended by my
classmates, and because of the way some of my classmates reacted to me at the
reunion. As is typical in these kinds of reunions, much of the initial talk
surrounds “where are you now and what are you doing?” I had a bunch ask me that
question, and when I said, “I’m a Presbyterian pastor,” they visibly moved one
step back. Then they’d say, “C’mon,… really,… what are you doing.” I’d repeat
that I’m a Presbyterian pastor, and they’d say, “You’re kidding. How did THAT
happen?”
There’s a reason they reacted in this way. If you looked
back at the way I was in school, especially junior high, there seems to be no
possible connection between that guy and who I am now. They remember me in
seventh grade, helping spark squirt gun battles in English class each time the
teacher turned her back to us to write on the chalkboard. They remember me as
the idiot who would put thumbtacks on people’s seats. They remember me as the
guy who was always getting bad grades, always getting in trouble, and who
seemed to have no interest in religion. My interests were sports, television,
and getting into trouble.
What they didn’t know, because they hadn’t seen me in
years, was that when I went to college, I went with the intention of
reinventing myself. It can be hard to reinvent yourself in your hometown
because your past sticks with you there. People always hold your past against
you, which makes is hard to develop a different future. By going somewhere else
I was able to begin working on becoming someone else.
It’s because of that reunion in 1992 that I really
resonate with our passage for this morning. Jesus says, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among
their own kin, and in their own house.” I certainly don’t count myself as a
prophet, but I understand what it is like to go back to a hometown and have
people be incredulous that I could be what I was. Too many people knew my past
to accept my present
Apparently too many people in our passage knew Jesus’
history. We have no idea what that history was, but apparently it was enough to
make people skeptical about Jesus’ preaching and teaching. Maybe Jesus had
raised hell when he was younger. Maybe he had been a nobody. Who knows,… but
because people knew too much about him, they were not able to hear God speaking
through him.
Would you know a prophet in your midst? How would you
tell if someon was or wasn’t a prophet? What might get in the way of your
accepting her or him as a prophet? All throughout the history of Israel and Christianity,
there have been false prophets. In fact, all of the true prophets of Israel
complained about them. Ezekiel said this about them, speaking God’s words: “My hand will be against the prophets who see
false visions and utter lying divinations…” Zechariah said this: “For the teraphim utter nonsense, and the
diviners see lies; the dreamers tell false dreams, and give empty
consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they suffer for lack of a
shepherd.”
There were many false prophets in Jesus’ time. They were
preaching all over the place. Whenever I think of the false prophets of Jesus’
time, I think of a very funny scene in the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian. When the film came
out in 1979, Christians from all corners protested the film, complaining that
the film belittled Jesus. In fact, the film only shows Jesus once, during his
preaching of the Sermon on the Mount, and it was very respectful of him. They
were really making fun of Jesus’ time, not Jesus himself.
The film is about a man named Brian, who can’t seem to
find a job, who is something of a simpleton, and who has horrendous luck. For
some reason, people think he’s a prophet or a messiah, even though much of what
he says is fairly banal and ridiculous. The scene from the film that reminds me
of false prophets is a scene in which Roman soldiers are chasing Brian through
Jerusalem, after seeing him paint anti-Roman graffiti on a wall. As he runs
through a marketplace, you see prophets, all lined up and preaching.
The first prophet is covered with dirt, has wild eyes,
holds a forked stick with two amputated hands on them, and has a thick accent
that makes it almost impossible to understand. He yells to the assembled crowd,
“And the Bizan shall be huge, and black,
and the eyes thereof RED with the blood of living creatures! And the whore of
Babylon shall rideforth on a grey headed serpent,…” Then the next false prophet comes into
view. He’s wearing a crimson red garb that cascades off his shoulders and arms
in tatters. A hood of the same material covers his head and falls across one
eye. He says, “And the demon shall bear a
nine bladed sword. Nine bladed! Not two, or five, or seven but NINE! Which he
shall wield on all wretched sinners, sinners just like you, sir, there. And the
horns shall be on the head…”
Finally, the screen pans to a last false prophet who
has bushy gray/black hair, wears a ripped and moth-eaten cloak, and a faint,
almost confused look. He speaks in a quiet, timid voice: “There shall in that time be rumors of things going astray,…erm,… and
there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will
really know where lieth those little things wi,…with the sort of raffia-work
base, that has an attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friends
hammer, and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their
fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight
o'clock…”
The scene is a lot funnier when you see it than when I
describe it. I was able to show this clip during the actual preaching of this
sermon (sorry you missed it). It shows that in Jesus’ time there were many
false prophets, just as there are many in our times. Back them they were in the
street. Today they are on television, radio, and the internet. Jesus warned us
of these false prophets in Matthew’s gospel, saying, "Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Jesus recognized that it’s hard to distinguish between false and true prophets.
I think that in our day and age we have more false
prophets than at any time in history because of television, radio, and the
internet. It has become easy to follow false prophets in the media because they
look or sound so good, and they appear to deeply care about us while they rake
in millions for themselves. What makes them false is that they say what’s
necessary to make themselves popular, loved, and rich, without really caring
much about the impact of what they say. Their preaching is self-focused in the
sense that it’s intended to make the world in their image, and it is followed
by millions because they tell people what they want to hear. That doesn’t mean
they tell everyone what they want to hear. They may only target a small, but
passionate, segment of the population, but this segment is enough to make them
millions.
So how do we tell a false prophet from a real one? Here
are my thoughts. Let’s start with the false prophets:
- They tell people what they already believe, which means that they’re not hard for people to follow. They preach messages that are simple and simplistic, often intended to inflame people’s passions. They are articulate and powerful, and the result is that they help people feel as though someone speaks for them. The key is that they do not stretch people beyond what they already believe, but placate people to believe that where they are is where God wants them to be.
- They prey on people’s emotions. They want to make people feel fearful, angry, or righteously indignant. They tend to preach an “us versus them” message, getting people to fear “them” and what “they” will do to us if “they” gain power. They want people to be angry at “them” and what “they” are doing to us, or will do to us,if we don’t wield out power properly. They want people to feel indignant at what “they” are doing.
- They invoke God’s name and will in a way that promotes their own agendas, not God’s. They want us to think that God is behind whatever agenda they are promoting. The newest form of false prophet today is the atheistic false prophet who speaks in almost prophetic terms about the fact that God doesn’t exist, and they do it with such force that they aren’t questioned.
- They often hide their backgrounds so that people won’t know that they are charlatans. Or, if they’ve had an unpleasant or checkered past, they use their backgrounds to gain credibility. They create stories about how they used to be an addict, used to be a con man, used to be “whatever,” so that their transformation will make them appear more credible.
- They make themselves wealthy in the process. Ultimately, their wealth is the focus. False prophets are always focused on themselves. The key to asking whether someone is a false prophet is to look at his or her lifestyle. A false prophet gets rich through prophecy, and that’s the key to them regardless of what they may say to the contrary.
How do we distinguish these false prophets from real
prophets?
- The first thing you have to recognize about prophets is that despite what we have come to think about them, they do not really tell the future. They tell the present. What I mean is that they look at the world around them, and speak about where God is and what God is doing. They then call people into a life with God. They call us to live God’s way in light of current events. Prophets only rarely speak about the future, and when they do it is almost (although not always) about the near future—what for us would be thousands of years ago.
- They literally are an “advocate” for God (προφήτης or “prophatas” in Greek). They are advocates for God, keeping our focus on God, and especially on God’s Great Command to love God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength, and others as ourselves.
- They always call people to carry out God’s will in a way that cares deeply about all people, especially the poor and marginalized. This is a feature that bothers many people in modern American culture, and which has given rise to a prosperity gospel that ignores this aspect of the prophets. The prophets are constantly criticizing the rich for their treatment of the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. Many people today see this as a liberal interpretation of the prophets. The prophets certainly called people to a more moral way of living, but they also constantly criticized Israel for not caring about the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized. It’s what led Isaiah to say, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners,…”
- They often put themselves in harm’s way and crisis as a result of what they preach. They often live with targets on their backs. Their willingness to speak truth to power makes them very unpopular in their time and place, and usually poor. For example, Elijah had to run in the desert because of his prophetic activities. Jeremiah had to run to Egypt. Daniel could have easily been killed for his work as a prophet in Babylon. Prophets don’t live cushy lives. They often have to live in caves, sleep outdoors, and live on very little.
- They tick people off because they call people to change, to stretch, to think and be different from the world’s way. The fact is that no one in any day or age wants to be told that they way they think or behave is wrong. Prophets challenge us anyway.
- They struggle personally with their calling, and sometimes falter and fall as a result. They are not always confident. They struggle with God, and not always privately. They also have faults that are pretty apparent for others to see, and that sometimes robs them of credibility. For instance, Jeremiah clearly had some mental health issues that caused people to criticize him. Amos was a shepherd and a fig farmer—hardly the background that the people of his time would expect of a prophet. Hosea married a prostitute named Gomer, and she didn’t necessarily give up being a prostitute while married to him. Again, hardly the kind of family one would expect of a prophet.
- They call people to a better way of living, to God’s way of living, regardless of the consequences.
If you want an example of a modern prophet, think of Martin
Luther King, Jr. He received little personal gain from his message. He called
people to change radically to join God in what God was doing. He ticked people
off everywhere by calling for equality of everyone. He struggled and faltered,
sometimes publicly. He transformed the nation to a better way of living. He was
killed for what he preached.
Who are the true prophets you see in the world today?
They’re hard to pick out. Television makes it harder to recognize them because
it’s too easy to know people’s backgrounds, which makes them seem like prophets
in their hometown. I would imagine that any really popular true prophet would
be investigated and turned inside out, being criticized for things he or she
did in his or her youth.
I’ll give you the secret to finding that true prophet,
though. He or she is out there telling you things that make you uncomfortable.
He or she will make you question your beliefs, get you to care about all people (especially those you
may not care about), call on you to do something to make the world better, and lead
you back to God.
Are you following any of these prophets?
Amen.
Active Listening, Active Waiting, Psalm 130, The Rev. Connie Frierson
I
usually start the sermon with a question so here is the question for you. Do any of you ever get confused reading
scripture? Do you wonder how to tell the important things from the run of the
mill stuff? Well some of you might be biblical scholars, but for the rest of us
reading the bible is a challenge. So I have one quick and easy tip to tell if a
point is important in the bible. You can tell the important points because the
writer repeats it twice. You can tell the important points because the writer
repeats it twice, Oh duh. Oh true. In Psalm 130, we are called to wait for the
Lord like watchmen waiting for the morning, like watchmen waiting for the
morning. Hold it. This waiting for the Lord is so important the psalmist
repeats the phrase twice, “more than watchmen for the morning.
Is
that how we wait for the Lord?
What do you all think about waiting? Is waiting something you like? Is waiting something you are
good at? We think of waiting as a
bad thing. Waiting is dead time, a waste of time, something to be avoided. Yet in our passage today we are called
to wait for the Lord. But in our world waiting gets no respect. Waiting is the
Rodney Dangerfield of spiritual disciplines.
I
don’t think of waiting as a spiritual act. I think of waiting as a pain. In the perfect world waiting
should be cut to the minimum. There should be no waiting at all. I should go
right from my internal idea of what should happen to having that thing happen.
Life should be instantaneous, especially MY wants and need. Yet Psalm 130
describes a way of waiting that is profound and expectant. If waiting is so
important maybe the kind of waiting and the kind of being that the psalmist is
describing is quite different from what we think of as waiting. Waiting might
be a so completely different that we are blind and ignorant to what waiting can
powerfully and sacredly be. How do
we wait and how does God call us to wait? What’s the difference?
How
do we wait? Take your time answering. I have all day. We wait impatiently. We wait
anxiously. We wait with worry or with rage. We wait idly. We are predisposed to
action. We live under an illusion. The illusion is that if we just keep on
moving we are making progress. So,
not getting in to talk to the doctor, or the slow driver ahead of us or not
having the biopsy results or not finding the perfect job or the perfect mate
feels to us like wasted time. This is life at a frenetic pace. Let’s just keep moving along. But sometimes moving along is just
keeping the little hamster wheels of our life in motion. This isn’t living. This is racing to
death. We are going to swerve through traffic, pass the slow poke, cut off the
student driver, dodge around the big truck and race to that red light before
anyone else. Does that sound
familiar?
We
are waiting all wrong. We are dumb at waiting. We wait passively. We wait
anxiously. We wait idly. God wants us to learn soul waiting. Soul waiting is
different. Soul waiting is waiting expectantly, hopefully and actively. Soul
waiting is a state of being that is completely different from the toe tapping,
blank space we are used to. You can see this even in the posture of
waiting. Dead waiting is slack
jawed, blank eyed and drooling. Soul waiting is attentive and ready and
completely in the now and active.
I
have an example. Back in the day,
long, long ago I was a captain in the Air Force. I spent one long hot summer in
Montgomery, Alabama in SOS, Squadron Officer School. As part of this schooling we had teams that would work
through a series of crazy problem solving obstacle courses. For instance six of us would have two
pieces of rope and three poles of different lengths and we would have to get
the team over a ditch and a wall. We would walk into the course area and have a
set of instructions handed to us and be timed on how fast we could complete the
problem solving exercise. On the
first task I was handed the instructions and I started reading them to my
team. So I read, “The team must go
from starting point over the yellow logs.” I slapped the yellow logs to
illustrate. Big mistake. We have
to get over the yellow log and the ditch without touching them. So my slapping
the yellow log before I got that far in the instructions earned my team a three-minute
penalty. We weren’t allowed to start moving for 3 minutes. So for about 20
seconds we froze in silence. Waiting. Doing nothing. Then I asked could we talk? The answer was yes we could talk
and think. We just couldn’t move any of the pieces in place. So we spent the
3-minute penalty, reading the instructions and planning our strategy. We made
it over the wall in good time despite the three-minute penalty.
This
is our problem. We think of waiting as the absence of action. Waiting is an
opportunity for reflection, for preparation and for readiness. We need a new
word in the language for waiting. We need to wait actively. There is a big
correlation between waiting actively and listening actively. We need to wait
actively like we listen actively.
Who here thinks of listening as just dead space and a waste of time? I
mean really, you really would just prefer to tell your own stories and talk
right? Well we may hear each other making noise but how often do we really
understand? Hearing noise and understanding another person are two different
things. This is like dead waiting
and soul waiting. There is a technique called active listening that helps move
us from blah, blah blah to connecting. Active listening is a way of listening intensely to
another person. It is a way to
short circuit our preconceptions and get to what the other person is saying by
paraphrasing and asking question first about what the other person has
said. So often we think of
listening as just a gap between the times we get to talk. This is like dead
waiting. We think of waiting as just the dead space between our one goals and
our personal desires. There is
space and time but nothing going on in between. But active listening
dynamically understands. Active waiting and active listening help us get in
touch with God.
The
original Hebrew in this passage gives us a great picture of what waiting for
God looks like. The Hebrew word kavah,
which we translate to wait,
really means the extension of a cord
from one point to another.
This is a fine metaphor: God is one point, the human heart is the other; and the extended cord between both is the earnest believing waiting of the soul. This desire strongly extended from the heart to God. When we hold
onto the other end with attention this is the active, energetic waiting. When we wait properly, we can feel
the leading of God. The line of waiting becomes a lifeline, humming with
energy, from God to us. This is soul waiting. When we put down the rope or hold
it so slackly we can’t sense God’s pull, this is dead waiting. Isaiah writes, “Those
who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.” The soul waiting can connect
us with the source of power and strength. Waiting on God gives us direction and
purpose.
Henri J. M. Nouwen writes so beautifully about the
spiritual discipline that is soul waiting. He writes,”
To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to
trust that something will happen to us that are far beyond our imaginings. So,
too, is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting
that God molds us according to God’s love and not according to our fear. The
spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment,
trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our
own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance
toward life in a world preoccupied with control.” Spiritual waiting changes how we look at ourselves and how
we look for God in the world.
The
truth is some waiting is harder than others. Psalm 130 starts with, “out of the
depths I cry.” The psalmist is in the depths, a bottomless dark place. This
isn’t waiting with happy anticipation for Christmas morning. Waiting in the
depths is waiting in the hospital room or the dark hours of the morning for the
teen to get home safely. Waiting in the depths is an uncomfortable, painful
place. So this waiting takes a
different kind of hold on that cord from God. This kind of waiting requires a
faith that God is at the other end no matter what pit we are in. This kind of
waiting pays attention to who is at the other end of the cord. You aren’t waiting for just anyone. You
are waiting for God, for the Lord of steadfast love.
When you are in the depths, in the deep
pit there will be lots of philosophies that will tempt you to let go of waiting
for God. A
Buddhist might say: "Your pit is only a state of mind." A Hindu might say: "This pit is
for purging you and making you more perfect.” Confucius might say: "If you
would have listened to me, you would never have fallen into that pit." A
new ager might say: "Maybe you should network with some other pit
dwellers." A self-pitying person might say: "You haven’t seen
anything until you’ve seen my pit." A news reporter might say: "Could
I have the exclusive story on your pit?" A bureaucrat might say:
"Have you paid your taxes on that pit?" A county inspector might say: "Do you have a permit for
that pit?" A realist might say: "Yup, that’s a pit." An idealist
might say: "The world shouldn’t have pits." An optimist might say:
"Things could be worse." A pessimist might say: "Things will get
worse." But Jesus, you in a pit, will take you by this expectant cord of
faith and lift you out of the pit.
Knowing
whom you are waiting for is the difference between waiting dead and waiting
with your soul. A Christian holds
onto the cord of faith so that God can pull you out. This is waiting with
expectant faith. That is why we wait for God like watchmen on the walls on a
dark night. A watchman
is one who waits, looks and listens with complete concentration. A
watchman knows the danger and remains alert. A watchman waits for that
steadfast dawn. So watch and wait
wisely from a soul that knows its connection to God and knows the inevitability
of the sunrise.
Amen
Sent by the Spirit~to Serve Everywhere
Acts 3:1-10
June 17, 2012
One day Peter and John were going up
to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a
man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the
gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from
those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the
temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and
said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive
something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have
I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he
took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and
ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered
the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw
him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to
sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled
with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but not
only do we live in a culture of trends, but we are part of a church of trends.
You may not notice it as much in the church because often the trends have to do
with how pastors work and lead, what the church emphasizes in its program and
ministry, and how it worships (which is the trend that’s the most obvious).
I’ve been a pastor now for almost 24 years, and in that
time I’ve seen the Presbyterian Church, and others like it, move through a
number of trends. When I was in seminary the big trend was the “pastoral care”
movement. This was a trend sparked by the rise of popularity of psychology and
counseling in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. The emphasis was on the idea that the
main focus of the church should be to care for people as they go through
difficult times, with the understanding that people are always kind of going
through difficult times. So, the role of the pastor, under this model, is to
visit everyone in the church at least once a year, and to be primarily the
counselor-in-residence.
This trend was modified by another in the late 80s and
early 90s: the evangelism trend. This trend taught that the church had to reach
out more in order to bring people into the church. We were shrinking as a
denomination, and the focus was to find ways to get people interested in coming
to our churches. So they created a lot of programs such as the
“bring-a-friend-to-church” Sunday, with the idea that if we each brought a
friend, the church would grow again. The role of the pastor was to be the
person who created the context in which people wanted to join the church. So we
were to visit prospective new members and spearhead the outreach.
As we moved into the 90s and 2000s, the big trend was the
contemporary church movement, which not only meant creating and offering
contemporary worship, but creating a church that is up-to-date technologically
in every way.
Now there’s a new trend. It’s called the “missional
church” movement, and I invite you to find out more about it by watching the
video at this web address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arxfLK_sd68
If you watched the video, it suggests that we have become
too self-centered in the church, expecting everything to revolve around church
programs within the building. The emphasis is that we each are to become
missionaries in our homes, workplaces, with friends, and the like, and we are
to open people up to God’s presence.
I agree with this missional trend. In fact, I’ve agreed
with most trends. Often they are balancing out something that was neglected
previously. So the pastoral care trend was a response to churches that had
become way too dry and theological in the 1950s. The evangelism trend was a
response to shrinking churches that had become a bit shut off to outsiders. The
contemporary trend was a response to church worship that had become too staid
and not as welcoming to non-Christians. The missional church movement is a
trend that’s a response to churches focusing too much on what’s going inside
the church, and not enough on what was going on in the world.
We were part of this missional trend even before it became
a trend. You’ve been hearing me express the ideas of this trend ever since I
came to Calvin Presbyterian Church. Each Sunday I’ve given a prayerful
benediction in which I’ve charged all of us to take what we’ve heard in church
and make it part of our homes, work, friendships, and everything else. I’ve
charged you with going out and becoming Christ-bearers and light-bearers in the
world in ways that only we can do, and to do so wherever we are.
What I find difficult about the missional church movement
is its either/or emphasis. Like many
trends before it, it tends to see itself as THE answer to what ails the church.
I rarely take an either/or approach
to life. I tend to take a both/and
approach, which in this case would mean being both pastoral and evangelical,
both traditional and contemporary, both church-focused and missional at the
same time. The point is that as Christians, and as members of this church, we
need to emphasize both on the mission and ministry of this church, and on being
Christ’s presence in the world. That doesn’t mean that during your lunch break
you need to sit down with your co-workers and say, “Have you heard the word of
Jesus?” Instead, it means seeing everything you do as a way of serving God,
including how we treat others.
Since Pentecost, we’ve been talking about how all of us
are called by the Spirit to become apostles, to serve in ministry, and to serve
in mission. To complete this idea, it’s important for us to recognize that we
are also called to serve everywhere we are. We ARE Christ’s hands, feet, eyes,
ears, and mouths in the world. Wherever you are, that’s your mission field, and
you are called by God to serve Christ in it.
A heard a great way of thinking about this several years
ago from one of our members. What he said was quite profound. He was talking
about how he had changed his approach to faith. For years he would come to
church, pray, think about religious things, but when he went to work he would
hang his faith on a hook while hanging up his coat. What changed in his life
was when he decided to leave his faith on throughout the workday, and not hang
it up with his coat.
After hearing me mention what he said in this sermon last
Sunday, he wrote me more profound stuff in an email. He said, “I no longer feel that way about hanging up
my faith when I hang up my coat at work. For years I have truly hated my
job and my company and was miserable. I tried on many occasions to find other
opportunities, mostly somewhere else in the country, and nothing ever worked
out. So I began to reflect on this and decided that for whatever reasons
that I did not understand that God wanted me in this position. So rather
than just feel sorry for myself I began to listen and learn that other of my
co-workers were also feeling some of the same things that I was (although not
to the same degree), and I began to ponder what I could do to help them.
While I didn’t really feel that I could do anything for myself, I came to
believe that God would want me to help others, especially for the folks who
work for me. Over time I really feel that I have made contributions to
making others more satisfied, more engaged and more happy in what they are
doing and feeling about themselves. Then I realized that by doing this
that I was actually helping myself and how I viewed everything in
general. While I still am not in love with my job/company, it is much
better and I also have seen myself grow more as a mentor and it has also opened
up new opportunities for me such as my two trips overseas to help out a
struggling operation there. This has been a blessing!!”
Whenever I hear people complain, or ask, where is God
during difficult times, I know the answer. The answer is that God is in the
hands and feet and love of those who help out those going through difficult
times. Christians have been God’s hands and feet in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, the tsunamis in the Pacific, the tornadoes in Missouri and elsewhere,
and in Haiti. It is often Christians who stay and work after governments have
gone away. You are God’s hands and feet anytime you not only care for people
somewhere else, but care for someone who is grieving, struggling, hurting, or
ill.
To give you a different perspective on how we are God’s
hands and feet, I’m going to invite our associate pastor, the Rev. Connie
Frierson, to finish this sermon:
This
is a tag team sermon. Graham started it
and then tag. I’m it. That is so
appropriate for mission because mission is not a solo service. Mission is done with friends and partners and
it is meant to be done by everyone.
As
I read today’s passage from Acts. something struck me about Peter and John.
There they are doing their normal, ordinary thing, going to the temple for the
3:00 prayer service. How routine this
was, a good routine, but a routine nonetheless.
You all know how we rely on doing the habits we do. If you go to the early service most don’t
switch to the later service. If you go
to the 11:00 service, you almost never go to the early service. We are all creatures of habit. Peter and John
had a habit of prayer. Prayer is a holy habit that trained them to listen to
God. But habit alone is not enough for the Christian life. Habit done by rote can lead to a deadening of
spirit. The habit of prayer should do just the opposite. Regular prayer should lead us to see the
spirit of God calling in the ordinary moment.
In
this passage of scripture Peter and John were not doing the ordinary everyday
stroll past the Beautiful Gate. On this day they noticed the man who was always
there, always with his hand out for alms, always in the same place. The bible says Peter looked intently at the
man and so did John. I wonder what Peter
and John experienced. Was it a clarion
bell of God’s call to heal this man? Was
it a gentle whisper that they strained hard to hear? Was it an intuition so soft and indistinct
that they just needed to go on a hunch, a God hunch? We will never know which of these most
likely describes the moment. But
whatever it was Peter and John became intently aware of this man and his needs
and God’s power to heal.
When
God spoke to me about mission it wasn’t with Charlton Heston’s Godlike voice.
But it wasn’t a vague intuition either.
It was more like a stage whisper.
But what I heard was “PSSSST, Follow me, Serve me.” What I didn’t hear was specifics of where,
when, who or how. I remember coming to Graham’s office to talk about God’s
distinct but unspecific call. I remember wailing, “But what if God sends me to
Calcutta, I DON’T WANT TO GO TO CALCUTTA!” Graham shared some wisdom with me.
He said that God probably wouldn’t send me to Calcutta, or if God did, then
when I received that call I would be ready for it. But with a husband, two
small children and a farm, Calcutta didn’t seem like a likely fit. Many of you know how this story goes on. I wasn’t sent to Calcutta. I was sent to
Callery, a little community just over the hill from my farm. I was called to be a hospice volunteer. I was
matched to volunteer with a woman who was an elderly twice-removed cousin,
whose daughter was a Presbyterian minister. This first Hospice assignment was
really a call to help family. This was a
call to serve in my own backyard.
This
is the way mission and God’s call often works.
We fear the big call to do the impossible task for God far away and at
great personal sacrifice. But often what God wants you to do is just go across
the street. There are many, many short steps that prepare us for the long jump.
But be warned. Once you step out your
door for God, you step onto a slippery slope.
You never know where that small first step will lead you. In my case it
looked like a simple visit with my cousin Jean. But it turned into a passion to
be with people who are on the sacred ground as they approach the end of this
life. Then that led to wanting to do it
more, then better, then more deeply. So
I went to retreat that told me to go out to the deep water of faith. Then I
took a course in Spiritual Disciplines. Then I enrolled in seminary. The I
graduated and was ordained. God didn’t
want me to go to Calcutta. God wanted me to go to Callery, then Calvin. Maybe
Calcutta is still waiting in my future. One simple hometown mission will lead
you to the next and the next. This is
what looking intently with God’s Spirit will do for you.
I
have learned a lot about mission from a friend of mine, Val Rabosky. I met Val about five years ago at the
YMCA. It was about a year after my
husband, Allen’s death. I started walking at the YMCA. Val was one of my walking partners. Val was in his early 80’s so we were well
matched as exercise pals. Val is one of
those unique people who not only shares his own stories but really listens to
yours too. So we learned about each
other’s lives. Val is a man with a deep
faith, who has worked hard and enjoyed life.
He has been active in church life.
He has been a camp director for Christian summer camp and remembers and
wonders about some of the youngsters he counseled at camp. He has collected
food for families when times were hard. He has been a good friend. Val has been
a faithful Christian for so long that there is not much I can see in his life
that is separated from following Jesus. Val is a combination of those holy
habits of prayer, worship and study and the spontaneous opportunity to share
God’s love.
In
the past Val has been part of mission that goes outside and does things. Now Val’s mission is closer to home and
deeper. Over two years ago Val was
diagnosed with Mesotheolomia, a lung cancer associated with asbestos. This
diagnosis hasn’t changed the fundamental nature of Val’s faith. This part of life is just a further piece
down the road Val has trod all his life.
Val thinks in terms of mission and work for God even at the end of life.
Here is what I mean:
With
a cancer like Mesotheolomia, there are a mountain of lawsuits and a battalion
of lawyers that come in tow. Val is
unique in that his memory was so astonishingly clear and cogent. He remembered every job he ever worked. He remembered the years, the companies, and
the sub contractors and if you pressed him he could probably remember the
foreman, supervisors and the union rep.
Val was a treasure trove of information about asbestos and work
issues. In one week Val submitted to
four days of depositions, by tons of lawyers.
The deposition was held in a local hotel ballroom, so that all the
lawyers and stenographers and camera people and cyber conferencing could go
on. This was a tremendous pressure on a
sick man. But Val did these lengthy
depositions not just for the welfare of his own family, but for others. Val said, “ A lot of guys can’t remember, or
they get too sick or they die before they can to tell their story. So partly,
I’m doing this for the guys.” This is mission. Telling your story clearly and well helps
others. Val understood that.
Even
before Val got sick he thought of a smile and a simple “Hello” as mission. He
once told me, “You never know what difference a smile can make.” Val offered
friendship to anyone who wanted to chat with him. When Val was not able to do his usual workout
at the YMCA he would come to say hello and wish people well. As he sat in chairs outside the weight room,
Val would greet whoever came by. I know he knew who was having financial
problems, marital difficulty or health problems. Because he was connected and he cared enough
to ask questions. Val spread goodwill.
He was the unofficial mayor of the Cranberry YMCA. This is mission.
Val
most profoundly looked on his dying as mission.
Val said to me, “I’m a little surprised by the number of people who
don’t understand that I will be happy to die.”
As people asked Val about his health they would have sympathetic long
faces. But Val would always remind them
that he was going home, that God was calling.
God had made promises to Val. Val knew God was going to keep them. So
Val took his dying time as a mission time.
I can see him poking someone with his finger and reminding them dying in
the Lord is not a bad thing, but a graduation day to the best thing.
This
is a life that looks at mission broadly and such a life calls us to think about
our mission. So I’m going to ask you to
look at your hands. Go ahead, right now
spread your hands in front of you and look hard. You think these are your hands. You think these hands are to do your work for
your interests, do your hobbies and fulfill your wants and needs. But that is not so. These hands are God’s
So
put up one of those hands now. Because TAG!
Your it. Go and serve.
Amen.
Sent by the Spirit~to Serve in Mission
Acts
13:1-5
June 10, 2012
Now in the church at Antioch there were
prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,
Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. While they were
worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting
and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they
went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived
at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And
they had John also to assist them.
I want to
start by telling you about a Betsy Kain. You may know her, since she used to lived
in Squirrel Hill and worked as a therapist for many years there. Today she lives in Santa Barbara, California,
but spends much of her time in Rwanda. Her life changed after a trip to there
around Christmas of 2006.
The British
human rights activist, Rebecca Tinsley, had invited her to go to Rwanda as part
of a therapeutic mission trip to help survivors of the Rwandan genocide, in
which almost 1 million people were brutally murdered in an attempt at ethnic
cleansing in inter-tribal conflicts. She had gone to help female victims of
rape and other forms of violence. While there she had a transforming moment.
She was viewing a live nativity in which an obviously malnourished mother sat
under a banana leaf covered lean-to. She sat with her husband, who was dying
from AIDS, while nursing her young baby.
The scene
so shocked her that she went back to where she was staying to listen to
Christmas Carols, hoping they would put her in a better frame of mind.
Listening to the songs, she was stirred by the Spirit as she listened to the
refrain of “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” which is “Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!” She heard in the
song that she was born for this, too—to help these struggling Rwandans.
Her efforts to help started when she
returned to Santa Barbara, and convinced the members of her church to buy a cow
for a village in Rwanda. That may not seem like much, but introducing Holstein
milk cows in Africa, which produce up to 2/3rd more milk than
African cows, makes a huge difference. The milk, breeding, meat, and manure
from a cow can make a major economic impact for them. Her church raised funds
to purchase three.
Her
continued visits to Rwanda also convinced her that while cows could make a
difference, goats could make an even bigger difference. For a family to have
just one goat can make the difference between starvation and thriving. The
goats eat anything. They produce milk that can be drunk or made into cheese to
be eaten or sold. Their manure fertilizes gardens. They can be bred to create
more goats, and they can be eaten.
Recognizing
the need, she started an organization called goatsforlife.org, where, for $45,
a person can purchase a goat for a family in Rwanda. Since she started the
organization, it has given over 3400 goats to individual families, and 36 milk
cows.
What’s
remarkable about Betsy Kain isn’t just her traveling to Rwanda and starting the
organization. It’s that she saw her whole life as mission. Her mission to Rwanda
was remarkable all in itself, as was her starting goatsforlife.org, but it’s
also clear that these weren’t exceptions. They were the rule of a life spent in
mission. She grew up the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor, and so learned the
value of living a life of mission. She has lived a life of mission, taking her
from working as a psychiatric social worker, to being stay-at-home mom, an individual
therapist, working in soup kitchens, making donations, and working as a missionary.
She
understood something that’s a calling for all Christians: we are called by the
Spirit to serve in mission. We are called at times to take a bold step—even if
it’s a small one—to make a difference for people we don’t know, who may be
different, and who may hold different values.
One of the
problems I’ve had over the years with the way Presbyterians look at mission is
that too often we’re too limited in our thinking about mission. Often
Presbyterians limit their understanding of mission to providing food, medicine,
buildings, and education, all of which certainly are part of mission, but
mission isn’t limited to them.
I
discovered how much we can limit mission in a pastoral interview I had with a
church in Maryland before I came to Calvin Presbyterian Church. When Presbyterian
churches are looking for new pastors, they are interviewed, much like would
happen in a business. During the interview, one of the members of the pastor
search committee, looking at my Personal Information Form (kind of like an
extensive resume we pastors fill out), commented, “I don’t see much mission in
your background.” I said, “It’s there,
and it’s pretty extensive, too.”
“Where?” she asked. I replied,
“My whole background is mission in one way or another. I’ve worked with
mentally retarded children, in a psychiatric hospital counseling children and
teens, as a hospital chaplain, as a drug and alcohol counselor, as an
individual and family therapist, helped with an inner-city vacation Bible
school in Wilkinsburg, and more.” She said, “That’s not mission.” I replied, “Maybe not the way you think of
mission, but it was mission to me. Some I got paid for, much I didn’t. But it
was always mission. I see mission as doing whatever we’re called to do.”
I found out
later that this sparked a big debate on their committee about the nature of
mission. I never had the opportunity to see if they were going to invite me to
become their pastor. I became pastor here before they finished their
deliberations. The discussion I had with them, though, revealed how limited we
can be in thinking about mission.
In our
passage, the mission Paul and Barnabas were called to by the Spirit had nothing
to do with food, medicine, education, and building. They were called to a
mission of spreading the Gospel. Unfortunately, this is a mission that we Presbyterians
aren’t particularly good at. We often feel as though sharing our faith is too
intrusive, or too embarrassing, or that we aren’t adept enough. But it’s
mission, too.
I know that
when I came to Calvin Presbyterian Church one of the struggles was to get us to
look at everything we do as mission. This was already a wonderfully
mission-focused church, but the mission tended to be outward looking and
limited in its scope, treating mission as only stuff we do somewhere else outside
of the church. I remember in my first year having a conversation with member who
insisted that any money spent upgrading the church was selfish, and that the
money should only be spent on things outside the church—unless we’re talking
about a collapsing ceiling. I replied that if we want to increase mission
outside the church, we have to enhance worship as a mission in the church. Not
only that, but we have to start seeing the everything we do in the church as
potential mission: drama, music, building, teaching, program, preaching,…
everything. I had said that if we see our worship as mission, upgrading the
sanctuary, the sound, the lighting, and everything else, it will grow the
church and allow us to do even more mission, locally and globally. That’s been
born out. I’d invite you to look at the mission page of our website and see how
much we are doing in mission. It’s quite amazing.
Still, it’s
not enough to see everything we do as mission. We need to constantly be asking
what we are called to do in mission, individually and as a church. Like Betsy
Kain, we have to be willing to follow where God calls us, so that we can live a
life of mission. This is what I’ve tried to do in my life. I’ve tried to follow
what God has called me to do in mission, and it’s allowed me to develop a
mission that is very unique to me.
Most of you
don’t know this, probably because I don’t make a big deal about it, but for the
past six years I’ve had two personal missions. One is that I serve as a
counselor and spiritual director for other pastors, helping them become
healthier in their own lives and leadership. At any time I’m seeing 5-7 pastors
from different denominations, at no charge, once every 4-5 weeks to help them
become healthier in their ministries. Also, because of the books I’ve written
and the work we’ve done here at Calvin Church, I travel around the country and
Canada, 15-20 times a year, to give talks on how to create a more spiritually
open, grounded, and healthy churches like ours. Over the past six years I’ve
been to California, Oregon, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa (4 times—they must really like me there), Michigan (5 times), Massachusetts,
North and South Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Indiana,
Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Ottawa, Ontario, New Hampshire, and more. I’ve
been in Mississippi in the heat of July, and in Minnesota in -27º. Over the
next 8 months I’ll go to Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Edmonton, Alberta.
The way I
keep this as a mission is that even though I charge speaking fees that range
from $1700 to $3000, the fees don’t go to me. They go to Calvin Church. This
allows my mission to serve as a double mission. I am sent by this church, by
you, to help other churches become healthier, and then their fees come to
Calvin Church to support the ministry and mission of Calvin Church. Each year
these fees provide anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 to Calvin Church’s budget.
You can find them in our financial statements under “Standish Ministries.”
My mission
to pastors and churches is one that I’m uniquely called to, and that fits my
skills and abilities. Others are called to other mission work. I’m not
necessarily called to Betsy Kain’s mission, nor she to mine. But we are both
called by the Spirit to mission that fits us uniquely. So are you.
Following
where God has called is what I’ve asked our church to do. The only thing I’ve
ever asked us to do it to seek God’s calling in prayer, and to do what we are
called to do. I’m convinced that when we do this, mission opportunities flow.
Along with this emphasis on seeking God’s will has been my constantly reminding
the Mission Committee and individuals that it is okay to say “no.” Listening to
God’s call is as much a question of saying yes to what God wants, and saying no
to what isn’t right for us.
Because we
are a church that seeks God’s call, many in our church are listening. The
response to God’s call by many of our members has really inspired me. For
example, I see the McConahy family raising funds for the Relay for Life, in
memory of their son, Sam. They began coordinating this local fundraiser after
their son died, and each year have managed to raise increasingly more funds.
Last year they raised over $8000 to fight cancer. I’ve seen Kim Sebring respond
to the pain of the death of her son, Tyler, by starting Project Hope, hoping to
ease the pain of others with children at Children’s Hospital. I’ve seen Zane
and Jen Sanders serve as college chaplains at Kenyon College. I’ve seen the six
members of Calvin Presbyterian Church go to seminary to become pastors, five of
whom now are ordained pastors. I’ve seen all the people who have followed God’s
call to serve on mission trips, food cupboard, Ladle and Hearth, collecting water
for families in Connoquenessing, the mission committee, Habitat for Humanity,
SERRV, the Green Team, the Wounded Warrior Project, and so much more.
Simply put,
part of being a Christian is discovering how God is calling us to mission—to
sacrifice our time and effort to reach out to people we don’t know, who may be
different, and who may have different values, and doing so because we care. How
is God calling you to serve in mission?
Amen.
Called by the Spirit~to Serve in Ministry
Acts 6:1-7
June 3, 2012
Now during those days, when the
disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the
Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of
food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and
said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait
on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good
standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task,
while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the
word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a
man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus,
Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these
men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. The
word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly
in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
As many of you know, because of my background I tend to
keep my feet in two different areas at the same time. I read and study a lot in
the areas of spirituality, theology, and religion, but I also spend a lot of
time reading in the areas of psychology and the social sciences. The reason is
that I remain constantly fascinated by people and why we are the way we are. I
don’t believe in focusing only on one area of human life, and so I try to be
well-integrated in my understanding of what it means to be human and how we can
live better lives. It’s not easy having feet in both camps because many in the
scientific/rational camp are hostile to religion, and many in the religious camp
are hostile to science. But I try to be a bridge between the two.
On of my favorite magazines in the science camp is Scientific American Mind. It’s a
magazine that explores human psychology from a mostly neurological and physical
perspective. In their May 2012 issue, they had an interesting article titled, “Are
Believers Really Happier Than Atheists?” by Sandra Upson. Like many articles of
the kind, it cites a growing body of research that says that, in fact,
religious people are happier than non-religious people.
This body of research has basically demonstrated that
just by your being in church this morning you are healthier and happier than
those who aren’t. Much of the research done in the past 20 years points to
higher levels of health and happiness, even if you control for unhealthy
factors. For instance, if you are a smoker and you are part of a church, you are
healthier than a smoker who isn’t. If you are diabetic and part of the church,
you are healthier than someone who isn’t.
The article admitted, more or less, the validity of these
studies. But then it went on to take a next step. The author adopts the
perspective that what makes religious people healthier is that they spend time
with others in a community of support (a conclusion which, by the way, isn’t
really supported by research). She believes that there is nothing inherently special
about religion other than being a community of support, and she goes on to
speculate that atheists could be just as healthy as religious people if they
could form similar communities of support. She then offers her ideas on how
atheists could form similar communities.
As I read the article, I kept thinking that the author
was really missing the point of the research. She never delved into the reason
atheists don’t have these kinds of communities. The reason is that atheists don’t
is that they aren’t driven by the same impulses as religious people. What
drives a religious community is that it is filled with people looking to love
God and love others. Love is the glue of the Christian community. We may love
very imperfectly, and we may fall short in the details, but we try. As flawed
as we are, we are driven by a desire follow God’s command to love God with all
our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love others as ourselves.
This is not to say that atheists can’t love or don’t
love. It is to say that love isn’t necessarily a driving force of atheism. What
drives atheists? Obviously what drives
each atheist is individual motives, but as a group they are driven as much by
what they are against as they are by what they are for. Being against God and religion,
they block the possibility for the kind of community religion brings. You can’t
create a community of love by starting out being against religious communities
of love.
Christian communities actually become unglued when love
is diminished and taken out of the church. The churches that fall apart
generally are ones in which the members forget about love. They become so
focused on individual agendas and power struggles that they become divided. And
you see this same forgetfulness in churches that give Christianity a bad name.
For instance, you heard about the pastor of Providence Road Baptist Church in
North Carolina, who recently preached in sermon that went viral on YouTube. He
said that we should gather all the homosexuals and “queers,” put them behind a
compound behind a high fence, and send airplanes over to drop food in. His
vision is that eventually they would all die out because they won’t reproduce.
The following week a pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas
took the issue a step further by saying that all homosexuals should be rounded
up by the government and put to death. These are pastors and churches that have
forgotten the primacy of love. You see the same loss of love in the members of
the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas who stage ugly protests at the funerals
of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. And their lack of love sparks
non-Christians and atheists to paint all of us as unloving.
Still, what this article really brought out for me is
something that makes what we do in this church, and all churches, special. We
are a community rooted in a drive for love. I want you to reflect on how
special that is. How many communities are you a part of, or are you aware of,
that can say that they are primarily rooted in love? Your school? Work?
Your neighborhood? Your favorite sports teams? The clubs you belong to?
The reason a religious kind of community is missing among atheists, and among those
who’ve rejected church because they are spiritual but not religious, is that
there really aren’t other kinds of communities rooted in love. If you can think
of one, it is a rare one.
What makes any church special, and this church
specifically, is how we try to make love visible. I never want to suggest that
we are perfect at it, but we try. I want you to think about everything that
goes on here at Calvin Presbyterian Church, and how it impacts others by focusing
on others. A focus on others is the essence of love. Love is about putting
aside what is right for us so that we can do what is right for another. In that
sense, Calvin Presbyterian Church is a church for others.
Take a walk with me though the ministry of Calvin Church
and I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s start with worship. The focus of worship,
at its core, is to enhance our focus on God. It is meant to help us grow in our
love of God. Think about everyone who participates in the worship service on
Sundays. What’s the focus of those who serve as greeters? They don’t greet you
and hand out bulletins because of how wonderful it feels. The skeptic will say,
“well, they’re doing it so they can get into heaven.” We Presbyterians don’t
believe that our deeds get us into heaven, only God’s love and grace do. So I’d
be hard pressed to agree that any of our greeters are saying “good morning” and
handing out bulletins in order to get into heaven. If that’s the case, then the
bar for entry into heaven is awfully low. They greet as a simple act of love,
focusing on others.
You can apply the same focus on all the other things
people do in worship. The folks who play music or sing, serve communion, serve
on the soundboard, offer coffee after worship, serve in the nursery, or even
those of you who sing hymns in worship, don’t do so because of you. You do it
for others. Worship is a manifestation of being other focused—either focusing
on God or on others. It is hard to do worship when we are the only focus. It is
easy to do worship when the focus is on love.
Think about our education program. We have over 40 people
teaching Sunday School on Sunday mornings. These are people who often are
cutting out little paper hands at 10 p.m. on Saturday night, reading curriculum
on Saturday night, preparing classes from scratch, or are spending time being
trained to teach. They could easily be doing other things, but they do this
because they love children. And the parents who endure their kids’ whining and
complaining on Sunday mornings to take then to class do so because they love
their children and know how important it is for their children to learn about
God and love.
Our youth program is similar. Whether we are talking
about Bruce Smith, our youth director, the adult leaders, the youth leaders, or
the parents, they all lead and support the youth involved because of their love
for the youth. They want the youth to grow up with a sense of God’s love in
their lives, and with a desire to love others. No one is there because it is so
self-serving. They are they because it is other-serving.
Look at other areas of ministry at Calvin Presbyterian
Church. We have a great pre-school, taught by loving teachers, with loving
parents and church members serving on the board, the session committee, taking
part in fundraisers, and more because of love of children. All of our
committees are served by people who do so because of a desire to make Calvin
Church a place of love. Whether it is a committee devoted to caring for the
building, overseeing our finances, tending to worship, coordinating our
mission, developing a great education program, and more, they are served by people
primarily driven by a love for God and others. If it wasn’t so, who would
serve?
Our drama program is rooted in love. We don’t just put on
plays to please ourselves. We put on plays to teach a religious and moral
message to others, both inside and outside our church. And the people who
commit to night after night of rehearsals and performances certainly like to
act, but if that was the primary motive Calvin Church would not be their venue.
The folks who take part in our plays like to act, but they also like to be a
part of something that shares God’s love with each other and with us.
Giving is another act of love. When we give to the
church, we are acting out of love. We are recognizing our own limitations by
saying, in effect, “I may not be able to spread God’s love by acting, teaching,
singing, counseling, visiting, playing an instrument, or the like, but I can
devote part of my day, each day, to support others who can do these things. So
I give money to the church to support others’ acts of love.”
As Paul says in his letters, we are the body of Christ,
and every part of this body works together to be a body of love. In a body
there is no dominant part. All work together or not at all. We are a body of
love who come together, coordinate together, work together, and serve together
to love not only those within the church, but those outside the church. We are
all ministers. The word “minister” literally means “a servant.” In the
Protestant faith we believe that people like me are pastors, called and trained
to care for those in ministry, but all of us are ministers. All of us are
servants serving in ministries of love. This is what makes churches both
distinct and special.
What the article got wrong is that we aren’t happier and
healthier because we’re involved in something that gives us a sense of
community or even meaning. We’re happier and healthier because we are trying to
live out the source of happiness and health: God, God’s love, and God’s
grace. It’s not what we do that makes us happier and healthier.
It’s who we become as a result. As we
serve in ministry, we become people of love who love God, love others, and love
ourselves.
We are all sent by the Spirit to be involved in ministry with
each other. The thing I’d ask you to reflect on is how open you are to the
Spirit’s calling to become involved in the ministry of this church?
Amen.
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