Gifts

Pentecost 11A, 8/24/14
Romans 12:1-8

Jesus, Messiah, Son of the living God, guide us as you guided your disciples. Help us to grow in faith, and to grow closer to you and to one another. Amen.

There is an art to good camping.

If you’ve ever been camping in the wilderness – not car camping, where you just drive up to the site and pitch your tent, but real backwoods camping where you have to carry everything in that you’re going to need for your whole adventure, and you end up a day’s travel or more away from pavement and refrigeration and hospitals – if you’ve ever been wilderness camping, you know that there is an art to it.

A good camper can find dry wood in a forest, even the day after a rainstorm. She knows what to do when you run out of toilet paper. He can read the wind and know where to stash all the gear so that it stays where it’s supposed to all night long. A good camper knows whether the plants along the side of the trail are wild strawberries or poison ivy or something else.

When I led camping groups into the Boundary Waters, we had a system when we got to the campsite each night. There were jobs that needed to be done. There were usually nine people in a group, so we’d delegate out the jobs among the group.

Two people would set up the tents.

Two people would take a canoe out on the lake, and fill up all the pots with water for cooking.

One person would find somewhere to hang a rope so that we could hoist the food pack up on it at night to keep it away from the bears.

One person would secure the rest of the gear around the campsite – throw the paddles and lifejackets under the canoes and put the packs with clothes and whatnot over by the tents.

Two people would go gather firewood for the evening.

One person – usually me – would start preparing the food for dinner.

It was important that you picked the right person for each job.

If you sent out two people in the canoe, and neither of them knew how to steer, you’d eventually have to send out a rescue party to bring that boat back in.

If the wrong person was setting up the tents, you could end up trying to sleep on a hill, or in a puddle.

Depending on who you sent to get firewood, you might end up trying to cook dinner over a grass fire – I don’t recommend it! – or a camper might end up with a hatchet wound in his leg. Yeah, the camp changed its policy regarding who could use a hatchet on trail after that incident.

If you had anyone other than the guide as the primary chef, the group usually ended up going hungry for the night.

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

Some of us have a knack for knowing about the plants and animals we might encounter in the wilderness.

Some can light a fire with one match, every time.

Some are better at cooking over an open fire than over a kitchen stove.

Some of us are really good at steering the canoe while others are really good at tipping it over.

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

We used this passage from Romans a lot with groups from camp.

Every person in the group was important to the success of the camping trip.

But not everyone had the same role to play during the trip.

I remember one particular group of high school campers. There were two tall girls, who were both in track and field at school. They carried the canoes on every portage, and they were also good at helping with food prep. There were two boys, Eagle Scouts, who always set up the tents… and taught everyone else everything they had ever learned about camping. There was one younger, smaller boy who basically served as the comic relief all week, and kept everyone in a good mood.

Our small group of campers had to function together, like a single body. But each one of us had our own gifts to offer. And where some of us had weaknesses – like the time I freaked out because I had somehow ended up with a mama leech and 100 of her babies stuck to my leg – someone else’s strength was able to shine through, like when the comic relief boy yanked mama leech off my leg and made some funny comment about no one else going swimming in that part of the lake.

It is similar in the church.

God has given all Christians the gift of faith, which is what allows us to believe in Jesus and follow him to begin with.

But the ways in which we live out our faith vary widely from person to person.

Some of us are good at reading in front of a group of people. Some of us have gifts for keeping things organized. Some are good listeners and some are good writers. Some of us can look at a project and see every step that needs to be completed along the way. Some can look at a person and read their emotions and guess at what’s going on in their life.

Not everyone is good at all of those things.

But all of those things are necessary functions of the body of Christ.

We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

So when we need to recruit a new lector to read the lessons in worship, it’s not a matter of looking around the sanctuary and saying “who hasn’t done anything to contribute to our worship service lately?” It’s a matter of paying attention to how people communicate, and finding the articulate one in the group, and asking them whether they might consider serving the congregation in a new way.

It’s important that people understand the words of Scripture – those are the words of our faith.

But people will never understand the meaning of Scripture unless they can first understand what the actual words are.

So we need lectors who are lips and tongues and mouths.

We don’t want to have the big toe trying to scrawl something in the dirt for us to read – we need the mouth to proclaim the words of our faith.

The big toe is important! The entire body would be off-balance without the big toe! But the big toe simply wasn’t made to read things in public.

Is the analogy working for you? Do you understand what Paul was trying to say in the letter to the church in Rome?

Each one of us has something important to contribute to the life of the community.

But none of us should try to do something that God never created us to do. There are certain things that we just aren’t good at – and that’s why God keeps us in community with one another, so that we can cover each other’s weakness and learn from each other’s strengths.

The church isn’t a perfect representation of what humanity ought to be.

Many of us have experienced that first-hand.

The church is full of sinners. We were created in the image of God, but we have strayed from that image and      we’re not so impressive sometimes.

The only reason why the church ever has anything to offer each other and the world is that we sometimes, in our best moments, by the grace of God, we figure out how to work together and compliment one another’s shortcomings and work together as the body of Christ.

Each of us has been granted a spiritual gift or two – or three if we’re lucky – and when we recognize those gifts in one another, and when we help each other to thrive, then we are living out God’s purpose for our lives as the church.

Actually, I’d like to take some time in worship right now to reflect a bit on our spiritual gifts.

Like I said, things like finding a lector for worship, or a person to serve on Council, or a choir member or a Sunday School teacher, is not dependent on just whoever might happen to be available. It’s all about finding the person with that particular spiritual gift.

So I’m going to ask you all to do a little project with me.

I have a Spiritual Gift inventory here.

And I’ve got enough copies for one for everyone.

There are 60 questions. It’s not meant to be a high-stakes test, just a tool to help us figure out what kind of spiritual gifts we might have been given by God, that we can share with a community of other Christians.

So the ushers are going to pass out this inventory now. I’m going to ask you all to fill it out as faithfully as you think you can.

If you’re a member of this congregation, or if you worship here regularly, please put your name on the inventory.      I’ll have our new secretary figure out the results for you, and we’ll discuss them sometime later this fall.

See, this is one of the nice things about having a secretary on staff who isn’t a member and who can help with some of these confidential projects!

If you are not a congregation member, please still complete the inventory. You can figure out your own score on the website for the ELCA, our denomination, just by searching for spiritual gifts on their homepage. Or if you want a copy of the entire inventory, please see me after worship – I have a couple of copies printed out.

Now congregation members – if you complete this inventory, it doesn’t mean you’ll be recruited to be a Council member next year, or an assisting minister or a Sunday School teacher.

It means that we will try to help you find a way to use your spiritual gifts for the benefit of the entire body of Christ. So we can help you do those things that you find life-giving already – and we can help you avoid those things that are draining and that suck the life out of you.

Everyone has those things, you know.  

Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t make you a bad person.

In fact, it’s entirely possible that when you don’t like doing something – even in service of the church – it’s because God simply didn’t grant you that spiritual gift. You weren’t made to do that particular task.

But you were made to do something else. And I’m hoping that today, we can each get a better picture of what God has called us to do as individuals, and how to use those gifts to serve the community.

So take a few minutes, fill out this inventory, and place it in the offering plate when you’re done. The organist will play a little music, and then we’ll move into the hymn of the day. We’ll stay seated for that one today, in case anyone is still finishing up their inventory.

And we’ll spend some time later, this fall, figuring out who is a mouth and who is and ear, and who is a big toe. And we will find a place for each person to serve, sharing the gifts that God has given to them.

Amen.

Boundaries

Pentecost 10A, 8/17/14

Isaiah 56:1-8; Matthew 15:21-28

Lord, bring your salvation and reveal your covenant. Gather us to you on your holy mountain. Amen.

I’ve seen a lot of articles in the past several days about insiders and outsiders – about who counts and who doesn’t. The news has been full of tragedies, and just about every story describes people who have some kind of power controlling other people who don’t.

White people verses black people.

Police officers versus civilians.

Rich people verses poor people.

Mainstream media outlets and the way they tell a story versus social media and grassroots attempts to tell a different story.

On Thursday night, as a way to escape from all the craziness in the world, my mom and I got together to watch a Lauren Bacall movie.

We searched on Netflix and the only film of hers that was available for instant streaming was How to Marry A Millionaire.

In case you haven’t seen this one, here’s a quick plot summary. Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable are all models, and they move in together to a fancy apartment in New York. Their goal is for each of them to find and marry a millionaire, so that they can live the lifestyle they’ve always wanted and that they think they deserve.

Bacall’s character has some pretty strict guidelines on who the girls can bring in to the apartment – on what kind of men are worth their time.

To start with, no one is allowed who doesn’t wear a necktie.

Also, Bacall apparently has a thing for bad boys – for gas pump jockeys, she says – so she tries her hardest to keep away from anyone who reminds her of the guys she’s fallen for in the past.

You can imagine where the story goes from there.

But the point is, there are strict rules about who is in and who is out.

This is a story of exclusion and inclusion.

So are all the news stories we’ve been hearing lately.

So are today’s Bible stories.

The readings we heard from Scripture today tell us how God responds to people who lie on the edges of society – those bad boys that Lauren Bacall warned her cohorts against.

God welcomes outcasts.

In the first reading, from Isaiah, God is talking to Israel about foreigners, about people who are living on the margins of Hebrew society. God promises to welcome the   outsider      in.

 “These I will bring to my holy mountain,” God says, “and make them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. … the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, …will gather others to them besides those already gathered.” (56:7-8)

God has a plan to make outcasts included – to fix the things that separate them from the general population and give them standing in society.

This is a radical, miraculous, rule-breaking plan.

You may have noticed that a few verses are left out of the first reading today. We heard Isaiah 56, verse one, and verses six through eight.

This passage gives us a great overview of God’s plan to welcome all people, including outcasts and foreigners.

In the missing verses, we get a specific example of God’s overwhelming attitude of welcoming.

Listen to what those verses say: …do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. (56:3b-5)

OK, as you probably know already, eunuchs were men who had been castrated so that they could serve as trusted slaves for wealthy families. Eunuchs would pose absolutely no threat to the women in the household, or the lineage of inheritance in a family.

These eunuchs are the epitome of outcast people in Isaiah’s time. They were not allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord, according to a law in Deuteronomy – they were outcast from the faith community. And they were had no standing in society, because not only could they have no families of their own, but their family line would die with them, ensuring that their memory would be forgotten.

In verse 5 God promises the eunuchs an everlasting name – but one’s family name can only continue if someone has children. Impossible! In a radical, game-changing move, God grants the promise of children to the slaves who have been castrated!

We don’t get details – maybe the eunuchs will miraculously be granted children, or maybe God has another way to give them an everlasting name.

But the point is, God promises to fix the very things that separate outsiders from society. God will make the distinctions that we draw between each other completely irrelevant.

This reading seems to be saying, expect the unexpected!

God welcomes outcasts, in ways we could never imagine.

So it seems from this Isaiah reading that we’ve got an answer to the question, What Would Jesus Do? Of course, Jesus would welcome the outcast.

Right?

Well, maybe it’s a little more complicated than that. Let’s look at what happens in the Gospel lesson.

A Caananite woman approaches Jesus in today’s story. She would have been outcast in Jewish society in at least two ways – first, she was a woman, a female in a male-dominated society where men made all the rules. Women didn’t count as full citizens in that society.

Second, this woman was Caananite, not a Jew, not a member of the tribes of Israel but an enemy. She may have been considered a foreigner in the land promised to the Hebrew people.

And yet this woman comes to Jesus for help, asking him to heal her daughter.

The first thing Jesus says to the woman is, “you’re not my problem.” Helping the woman doesn’t fall into his job description, he says – it’s not part of his mission statement.

You’re not in my family, not from my community, you don’t belong to my church, you support the wrong policies… pick your insult.

Jesus calls the woman a female dog. That is not a flattering name, even in today’s society. Think about it. She’s not his problem and he tries to get rid of her with name-calling.

But the woman is persistent. She brushes off his name-calling. In fact, she embraces it. OK, I’m a dog, she says. And you treat dogs with a certain level of care and respect. Can’t you do the same for me?

Jesus is impressed with the woman’s faith. He responded at first like any human would do, but then the woman asked for more.

She reminded Jesus that God treats outcasts differently than humans do. She helped him remember and demonstrate that his mission as son of God is more than a human mission, his mission is to live up to the actions of God.

Jesus is fully human, and he shows it today by designating the boundaries of insider and outsider. But Jesus is also fully divine, thank God, and the Caananite woman reminds him of this.

First Jesus tries to pass the woman off as an outcast, but she won’t just be brushed aside. She won’t go away until she’s been recognized and had her needs met.

Outcasts can be like that in our society, too. We can’t just ignore them and hope they’ll go away. They have needs that must be met, and our calling to help them is divinely inspired.

So Jesus accommodates the Canaanite woman. He gives her what she asks for. He welcomes her as an outcast – cares for the person on the margins of society.

The disciples don’t understand it. As one author writes, “For the disciples, one should conduct one’s ministry by acting in a way that would avoid anything that could displease people; one should avoid disquieting confrontations. But, for Jesus, this is precisely not the way of conducting one’s ministry.”

Daniel Patte (The Gospel According to Matthew: A Structural Commentary on Matthew’s Faith)

Jesus’ ministry, when he’s doing it the best he possibly can, is to embrace all the people of the world as if they are God’s chosen people – just like we heard God promise to do in Isaiah.

There’s enough grace for all people, not just the “insiders.”

Do you remember the miracle of the feeding of the 5000? At that meal, feeding 5000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, there were 12 baskets of crumbs left over once everyone had been fed.

There is enough food to feed thousands, with baskets leftover… enough crumbs fall from the children’s table to feed the dogs as well… there is no limit to God’s grace.

Perhaps healing the Canaanite woman’s daughter was outside of Jesus’ calling, but doing so didn’t take anything away from the people Jesus was sent to.

Today’s Bible passages warn against an “us versus them” mentality.

It may show up all over the news, but it’s certainly not what God intends for our relationships with one another. Today’s lessons show us that grace extends to the outsiders in society.

People who are different than us can be included in our communities.

Welcoming others crosses all divisions and boundaries.

God will find a home for all people, so they have somewhere they belong.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Retire

Pentecost 9A, 8/10/14
1 Kings 19:4-15

God, speak to us, your people. Help us turn to you in our hearts. Let us hear what you have to say. Amen.

        

Elijah was the greatest prophet in his day.

He challenged King Ahab, who allowed his wife Jezebel to bring her false gods into Israel.

When Elijah fled the king, he lived on miraculous bread made by an impoverished widow.

When the widow’s son died, he brought the boy back to life.

In a competition with prophets of the false gods Baal and Asherah, Elijah called down fire from heaven to prove that his God was the true God.

He then ordered the deaths of over 800 prophets of the false gods.

Elijah was such an incredible prophet that John the Baptist and Jesus were both compared to him when people were trying to find words to describe what great prophets they were.

But in today’s story, Elijah isn’t all that great.

He has performed all his miraculous tasks. He fled the scene after fire miraculously came down from heaven, because he was afraid of what the people would do to him.

He felt abandoned.

He thought all his work had been in vain, since the worshippers of the false gods were still in charge in Israel.

He didn’t know what else God had for him to do.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He answered, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

God promises Elijah that he will speak to him and help him understand his purpose in the world.

It’s like the promise in the Psalm: the Lord will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

Elijah turns his heart to God in despair.

Then a whole bunch of powerful things happen – wind, earthquake, and fire – and Elijah doesn’t meet God in any of them.

And finally God appears in the sound of sheer silence.

OK, this tells us a few things about God and Elijah.

Elijah has learned how to listen for the voice of God.

Many people would have imagined that God was present in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire.

When natural disasters occur, we tend to blame God for them. We call them “acts of God” as if God is only present in violent times.

But in today’s story, God is clearly not speaking through these powerful signs.

God chooses to come to Elijah in the silence.

And Elijah is able to hear God in the silence.

Where do you find God?

Shortly after I began serving as your pastor here, I met with all the groups and committees at the church and asked them this question.

Where do you meet God? When do you feel close to God?

There were a few answers that kept popping up again and again.

The members of Cooksville Lutheran Church find God in music, in nature, and in other people. We feel close to God when we are in community, with our friends, our biological families, or our church family. We have seen God in the sunset and heard God in the notes from our organ or the sung words of our choir.

Once we’ve learned to recognize the voice of God, it is easier to feel God’s presence in other times and places. If we feel closest to God when we’re working in the garden, but God chooses to come to us one day in one of those cheesy poems on a greeting card – well, the only reason we can recognize God in the new place is because we’ve learned something about God from the old familiar interactions.

Does that make sense?

The only reason the disciples were able to recognize Jesus on the water was because they knew what he was like on land.

Peter is the only disciple who doubts – he makes Jesus prove his identity to him. The other disciples recognize Jesus’ voice, which they have come to know in a different context, so they believe that it’s him even when he shows up in an entirely unexpected place.

         (You can’t get more unexpected than walking on water!)

Back in the Old Testament story, Elijah is feeling burned out and is waiting to hear from God. Elijah is lucky – he gets a promise that God will come and help him understand his purpose in the world.

When we feel discouraged, God will come and do the same for us, as long as we’re willing to listen like Elijah did.

So let’s imagine that we’re with Elijah on the mountain, waiting to hear a message from God about our meaning in life.

And God speaks through the sound of sheer silence.

A voice came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He answered, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

Elijah’s story hasn’t changed.

He has expressed his discouragement to God, God has responded by showing up and trying to help… and Elijah’s discouragement remains.

Elijah’s words after experiencing God’s presence on the mountaintop are identical to what they were when he retreated there out of fear and frustration.

We can be like that sometimes, can’t we? God hears all our frustrations, and we tell God what we want, but when God shows up in a new and different way, all we can say is – this isn’t what I wanted!

It’s not like it used to be!

Elijah’s frustration remains.

So God gives Elijah some instructions.

It’s time to retire, God says.

Elijah, you’ve got two jobs left: go and anoint two new kings.

You see, in order to be a king in ancient Israel, for people to believe that you had the blessing of God, you had to be anointed by a prophet – it was sort of like the divine coronation ceremony.

So Elijah, God says, get off this holy mountain and take care of these two jobs I have for you. Then get some well-deserved rest. Find Elisha, and anoint him as prophet in your place. Your work will be done.

If you’re this discouraged, God says, the best thing for you is to let someone else take over. Give the reigns to someone who still has energy for ministry. Doing so doesn’t invalidate any of the ministry you did at your prime – all kinds of great things happened in the past, and you were the one who caused them to happen.

But your discouragement isn’t helpful right now. You think you’re alone in the world?

Look! There are still 7000 faithful people in Israel, God says, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. These 7000 deserve someone with a little more energy and a little less cynicism than you have at the moment. So let Elisha be the next prophet.

Elijah goes.

Meeting God on the mountain hasn’t changed Elijah’s outlook on life – he’s still burned out from his exhausting ministry – but meeting God has given him a purpose, which is really what he was looking for.

In fact, Elijah was so excited to be done as the primary prophet in the world, that he went and anointed Elisha first. He skipped over the anointing of the kings, Elisha ended up doing that later in the book of Second Kings.

Elijah was the greatest prophet in his day.

In today’s Bible story, Elijah’s day is ending.

He was faithful to God even when life got difficult – he was a prophet at a time when it was unpopular to follow God – but everyone’s got their limits.

Today, Elijah reached his.

So God gently says, thank you. I think it’s time for us both to move on now.

God uses Elisha to continue ministry on earth – the great prophet Elijah throws his cloak, his mantle over the younger prophet, granting him all the authority that he had carried throughout his ministry.

As for Elijah, a chariot sweeps down from heaven and takes him up to be with God.

That’s why people believe that Jesus or John the Baptist could be Elijah returned to earth – Elijah never died. He was taken directly into heaven, and so the belief was born that he would return someday.

Sometimes God asks us to pass the mantle to the next person.

This is good news.

Because sometimes God also rewards us with rest.

And if we’re lucky, God even grants us an enduring reputation that becomes the paradigm of what future faithful people should be.

God can come to us in the silence – in the unexpected places.

God guides us through even the most difficult times.

And God grants us rest when we need it.

Amen.