Commission

Epiphany 5B
2/8/15

1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark1:29-39; Isaiah 40:21-31

Help us, God, to see and to hear and to know and to love you. Be with us today in the reading, the hearing, the preaching and the singing of your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

When I was younger, I wanted to be all kinds of cool things when I grew up.

         I wanted to be an astronaut.

         Or study dinosaurs.

Or be a marine biologist.

I don’t think I ever had the stereotypical dream about being a rock star, but a Broadway star? That would have been pretty awesome.

In high school I had to start getting serious about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

My career path might depend on which language I studied in school, which AP classes I took (or didn’t), which college I attended, and which major I chose to study.

At least, that’s what I was taught.

We put a lot of pressure on teenagers sometimes, don’t we?

So, while I was in high school, I would occasionally sit down and write out a list of all the possible options of things that I thought I might want to be when I grew up. There were a bunch of career possibilities, from the practical to the unlikely.

One of the jobs that tended to show up on that list every time was “pastor.”

I always crossed that one off the list first.

I mean seriously, a pastor? Who in their right mind would want to be a pastor?

Who would want to write a speech every week?

Obviously, at some point along the line, the prodding of the Holy Spirit became stronger than my own protests.

It’s not because I’m a particularly amazing human being that God called me to be a pastor. It’s not because I can do a better job than anyone else, or because I am good at teaching, or because I’m so much more caring than your average person, or because I’m such a great public speaker.

Most of those things are probably not true about me.

The reason that God called me to be a pastor, I think, is the same as the reason that Paul shares for his ministry in today’s reading from Corinthians.

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! (1 Cor 9:16)

For those of us who know the Gospel of Christ, our job is to proclaim it to others.

The proper response to hearing the Gospel is to share it with the world.

In fact, I think Paul would even go further.

If you have heard the Gospel, but aren’t sharing it with other people, then you haven’t really heard it or understood it yet.

The only way to truly hear the Good News is to hear it in such a way that actions follow the hearing.

OK, this is important.

Hearing the Gospel requires proclaiming it to other people.

And that’s not the case just for pastors.

For me, when I was trying to figure out what to be when I grew up, the Spirit led me to see that the best way for me to share the Good News was to do so as a pastor. I am blessed to be able to share the Gospel as part of my profession.

But that is no cause for boasting, as Paul reminds us.

It is something that I do simply for the sake of the Gospel.

And it’s something that all followers of Jesus are asked to do – not for our own advancement or personal gain, but for the sake of the Gospel.

So whether you’re a teacher or a janitor or a software engineer or a salesperson… whether you’re a stay-at-home parent or a retiree, a volunteer or an independent consultant – sharing the Gospel is the commission that God gives to all of us.

If we know the Gospel, it’s our job to proclaim the Gospel.

In fact, if we aren’t proclaiming it, we don’t really know it.

Now, don’t get too worried here. It’s not like God wants all of us to get placards and stand on street corners proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

The commission, as Paul calls it, isn’t even to try to convert all the people that we know to Christianity.

The way to truly hear the Gospel is to respond to it, and that response is what St Francis instructed us to do:

         Preach the Gospel at all times.

         If necessary, use words.

We all know that actions speak louder than words. So the way for us to proclaim the Gospel to the world isn’t always to find the best words.

For me, often it is – I’m still not sure why anyone would pick a profession that required them to give a speech every week.

But for most of us, proclaiming the Gospel can be done through our actions. Proclaiming the Gospel, for most of us, looks a lot like the ministry of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t always use words.

If you notice, in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus doesn’t use any words at all.

Someone told Jesus that Simon’s mother-in-law was ill.

And instead of giving a speech about healing or debating whether the same care should be given to all people, and without bringing up the worthiness of Simon’s mother-in-law to be healed or discussing what her quality of life would be – all that Jesus does in response to the news that this woman is ill is to reach out his hand, help her up, and heal her.

Jesus serves Simon’s mother-in-law.

And that’s all it takes for her to get out of her bed to start serving him in return.

         And then word gets out.

People hear about this miracle worker, so they start bringing all kinds of people to Jesus, and he heals them and casts out demons.

Again, Jesus doesn’t use words. He shares the love of God with people through his actions.

Jesus doesn’t get any sleep that night. He proclaims the Gospel, instead.

Jesus spends his time curing everyone in the city, and once he’s finally finished, in the wee hours of the morning, he goes off to a deserted place to pray.

         That must have been quite the adrenaline kick.

Can you imagine what it would be like to spend all night bringing life to other people? Jesus was on a roll!

When he finally took a break, it wasn’t to sleep – the adrenaline must have still been pumping pretty hard –he took a break to pray and to listen for what God would have him do next.

That’s when the disciples interrupted him. Once the disciples find Jesus, they tell him that the people want him to come back to town.

And he says, no. I didn’t come just for this city. Let’s go to all the other cities and towns nearby so that I can proclaim the good news there also.

OK, hang on a second. Proclaim the good news? The only thing that Jesus had been doing in the previous verses was to heal people. He hadn’t been preaching.

But he wants to go spread that same message – the message of healing – to every other place that he can find.

Jesus proclaimed the Gospel by his actions.

Of course, Jesus also proclaimed with his words – he gave sermons and told parables and taught his disciples at other places in the Bible.

But in today’s reading, the way that Jesus proclaims is by healing.

He uses his actions, his God-given gifts, to share the Gospel of Christ with the world.

That’s what God wants us to do as well.

Let me summarize for you.

The Gospel is the good news of Jesus – God created this world and made us in God’s own image. And God loves us so much that when we were messing up our lives and the world that God had created, God sent Jesus, the Son of God, struly divine and truly human – Jesus was sent to earth to give us an example of how to live and to die. And Jesus did die, for our sake. Because of the death of Jesus, we are all able to spend eternity in heaven with God and with all the faithful people throughout history.

This is good news. This is the Gospel.

And if we have truly heard this good news – if we really believe the Gospel – then the only thing that we can do next is to tell others about it, with our words or our actions.

If we know the Gospel, it’s our job to proclaim – which is to say, it’s our job to serve – just like Simon’s mother-in-law and just like Paul.

We may not be able to be all things to all people, like Paul claimed to be, but we can at least use our God-given gifts to share the good news about Jesus with the world. Through our words or our deeds, God will help us to make the Gospel known to others.

May the God who saves us give us the will to share the news of salvation with the world.

Amen.

Know! Hear!

A Call to Worship
Based on Isaiah 40:21-31

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the one who sits enthroned above the earth, who stretches out the heavens like a canopy.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Holy One brings princes to naught, and reduces world leaders to nothing.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens and see:

The Holy One created the stars and all creatures, calling them all by name, and not one of them is missing. Thanks be to God!

Following God's Lead

Epiphany 1/11/15
Farewell Sermon
Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6

Holy God, arise upon us and shine your glory among us. Help us to see you in our midst, so that our hearts might thrill and rejoice in your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Have you ever felt like you’ve been in exactly the right place at the right time?

A friend of mine has an amazing story about being the first person on the scene of a car accident. My friend had some significant first aid and emergency management training, so he was able to help the driver, who was injured, until the paramedics showed up.

He was in the right place at the right time.

Sometimes there’s an experience we need to have, or a person we need to meet.

I would never have been born if my parents didn’t each happen to be at the same pizza joint at the same time, each with their own friends. One group of friends was on the way in to the restaurant and the other on the way out – but it turns out that the friends knew each other, so the group who was leaving decided to stay, my parents got to meet, and the rest is history.

They needed to be there that day. They were in the right place at the right time.

God regularly leads us to places we need to be.

Sometimes these are profound, life-changing moments, like the ones I already mentioned.

And sometimes, God leads us to simple experiences – waking up before dawn to watch a beautiful sunrise, or finding a great sale at the grocery store in a week when money is particularly tight.

Whether simple or profound, God guides us in life – and when we follow that guidance, we just might have a chance to meet God face to face.

That’s what happened with the wise men from the east.

They followed God’s guidance, and they got to see God in person, once they finally followed the star all the way to Jesus.

The wise men, or magi, took a risk by going to seek out Jesus. These people were not Jewish; the promise of a Messiah didn’t mean anything to them personally.

They were scholars, and they probably had some standing in their own society. What do you think their neighbors and families thought when they went on a mission to find this mysterious new king?

Also, the gifts they brought to Jesus were pricey, but it sounds like the wise men paid for them out of their own pockets. Economically speaking, this was an expensive trip for them.

And yet, despite the potential personal cost, these magi still followed the leading of God’s star.

And that star led them to an Epiphany.

According to the dictionary, an epiphany is “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epiphany?s=t)

Epiphany is the Christian festival on which we remember the visit of the wise men to the Christ child.

In the church, we have a day set aside to remember these mysterious foreigners who followed God’s guidance to meet the baby Jesus – the day of Epiphany is a time to celebrate meeting God in our midst, and following divine signs to the places where God is leading us.

Epiphany is the day when the wise men paid attention to the essential meaning of that special star – when a commonplace thing like a star led them to meet God in a simple child.

Epiphany is a fitting celebration for us today.

Epiphany is about beginnings and endings, about taking steps into the unknown and about trusting in God’s guidance.

Epiphany is about leaving the familiar behind, building relationships with new people, and growing in our life of faith.

Epiphany is about recognizing God among us.

Just like God led the magi, God leads us through life.

We rarely get astronomical phenomena to show us the way… but we do get signs from God.

God leads us using conversations with our family and friends, for example. I’m guessing that most of us have been at a crossroads in our life at some point in time, and it took the wisdom and guidance of a loved one for us to figure out which path to take next.

God leads us in one direction by closing all the doors to other paths. Maybe you’ve had that happen to you. It’s like Maria says in The Sound of Music – when God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window! We may think we know which direction we’re heading in life, but sometimes God nudges, or even shoves, us onto a different road.

God leads us through prayer and Scripture and our own intuition… through coincidences and news stories and unexpected phone calls.

I recently learned that a group of Christian teachers in the Middle Ages, the mystics, said to pay attention to the same message, received unbidden, from three different sources.

That message just might be from God.

Allow me to share one example of how God has guided me.

It will be easy for you to draw parallels from this example to your own life, and to where you and I are today in our relationships with one another.

Three years ago I was finishing up my first call, as an associate pastor at a larger congregation. I had been there just over a year, but there was an interim senior pastor in place when I started. When a new senior pastor was called to the church, he wanted to build his own staff, so it was time for me to move on.

It was a sign – I was being led away from that church and on to new adventures.

That doesn’t mean I was happy about it at the time – I was enjoying that congregation, and was going to miss the people there. I could see God at work in the ministry we were doing together.

But God was with me as I left that congregation – and God has continued to be with those people as they carry on in ministry without me.

As it turned out, I ended up between calls for 6 months. I had the opportunity to preach in about a dozen different churches, and I learned a lot through that experience. Those six months were also my last as a single woman – so I was able to take some extra time to manage the details of our wedding planning.

God had led me to the church where I served my first call. And then God led me away. God led those people to call me, and then God led them to move on without me.

This is the way God works.

God guides our steps, but once we reach a destination, we can’t stop listening, because God is still guiding us.

Consider the magi. They followed the star until they found Jesus. But they didn’t stay with Jesus forever. They stopped to meet this miraculous child, and then they moved on with their lives.

And they still listed to God’s guidance when they took that next step. God came to them in a dream and warned them not to go back to Herod, because Herod was going to kill the baby they had just seen and worshipped.

Can you imagine how different the story might be if the magi hadn’t listened to God in that dream?

         God led the wise men to Jesus for a while, and then God led them away.

After my first call, I was able to articulate more clearly what I was looking for in a church. I wanted to be on my own for a while – I wanted to try preaching every week, and I wanted to learn how to manage church budgets and buildings and whatnot.

You know, often pastors who work on a staff with other pastors become specialists – like some doctors become gerontologists or podiatrists or anesthesiologists. I didn’t want to be a specialist, I wanted to be a generalist. I wanted to try my hand as a family practitioner.

I felt that God was leading me to something different for the next step in my life.

         And God led me to this congregation.

And you have given me the chance to learn about how to run a small congregation with minimal staff. You have helped me become a generalist.  

And God is still guiding us.

God is leading this congregation to try a different model of pastoral ministry for the next chapter in your life together.

God is leading me to partner with a new congregation and new colleagues.

God continues to lead all of us.

For a time, our paths converged.

But just like the magi had to keep on traveling, we can’t stay here forever. We need to keep listening for the guidance of God, and right now God is leading us down separate paths.

Today, on Epiphany, we celebrate that God is among us, and that we can meet God in common, everyday places. We remember that it’s important to follow where God leads us.

And we also remember that God’s guidance doesn’t stop once we reach our destination. God won’t stop guiding us until we enter life eternal – then, after we die, finally the star will stop moving and the dreams will stop coming and we’ll be able to settle where we have been led.

Until that time, everything is just a stop along the way.

Several years ago, I was working as the chaplain in a nursing home.

When I ended a visit with one of the residents, I would use the same words I did in everyday conversation. “See you later!”

Inevitably, it happened one day that I didn’t see the resident later. She died before we had a chance to visit again. I remembered what I had said at our last visit and realized some reevaluation was in order.

         After a lot of reflection, though, I decided to keep using that phrase.

         See you later.

It’s always true. We may see each other in church or at the grocery store. We may see each other at a special event, or we may get together for coffee sometime.

         Or we may not see each other again in this life.

But we will see each other again someday, when we are united with Christ and all the faithful people who have ever lived.

We have spent some time together here.

We managed to listen to God’s guidance, and we found ourselves in the right place at the right time.

But the time has changed. God is guiding us down new paths, and we can’t continue the journey together any more.

God will continue to guide us, though, so that we can keep being in the right place at the right time even if we are not there together.

And eventually, when our journeys in this life have ended, we know that we all will see God face to face.

Until then… see you later.