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Serving: Stewardship Sunday
As a product of the 21st century, I spend a lot of time trying to figure things out, as much to know what I don’t believe – can’t believe - as what I do. And part of my vocation as a priest and as your rector is to share my discoveries with you, which our Strategic Plan notes is liberating to some, irritating to others. But I have to be true to myself, as I expect you to be true to your own understandings, hopefully in a mutually respecting way that allows all of us to keep growing in knowledge, in faith, and in our relationships with each other - and with God.. As I grow in years and my experience of life in all its mystery, I find myself bumping into the limits of what we can know for sure, I try as best I can to know what I don’t know in my lifelong quest for understanding. On this Stewardship Sunday I consider my search a I don’t think any passage in the Bible better describes the limits of knowledge than the 38th chapter of the Book of Job, that magnificent drama wrestling with the “why’s” of life. From the heart of the tempest the Lord gave Job his answer. He said, “Who is this obscuring my designs with his empty-headed words? Brace yourself like a fighter, now it is my turn to ask questions and yours to inform me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell me, since you are so well informed! Who decided the dimensions of it, do you know? (It goes on to read) Can you fasten the harness of the Pleiades, or untie Orion’s bands? I must tell you: it still gives me a thrill to walk out in the morning to get the paper, look up in the dark autumn sky and see that constellation Orion sitting up there, faithful to its place in the universe, just as it did for that writer of Job. I must confess I don’t know how it stays in place to our eyes with the expanding universe. Orion is one of my touchstones with God’s magnificent order that leaves me standing in silent wonder, the limits of my knowledge reflected back in awe. I’m reminded that we are not Gnostics, saved by knowledge, nor by sophistication. Salvation – that union with God that leads to wholeness of life, integrity of actions, and authenticity of relationships – is a gift. Last week a woman did a nice favor for the church. As I thanked her for her kindness, she said - only half-joking, “I hope this will save me and get me into heaven?” I never turn down a teachable moment, so I quoted Martin Luther. “You don’t have to do anything to be saved. Jesus accomplished that. Now… since you don’t have to do anything, what would you like to do?” People have a hard time believing that. You are saved by grace, by God’s love and acceptance for you, not because of anything you can do. It’s a gift, a free gift. Not something you earn or deserve. A minister-friend once told me, “Oh, you should never tell people that or people will never do anything!” Not so. But it’s nothing new. The Zebedee brothers, James and John, were rambunctious - probably rivaling Andrew and Peter - and very human. The gall of asking Jesus for the honor of sitting next to him in the kingdom. I can just imagine Jesus thinking, “Houston, we have a problem.” Of course the other disciples, who’d probably been wishing the same thing, but lacking the guts to voice it, were suddenly indignant. For Jesus a teachable moment and one of his most important learnings: You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all.” Servants – your eye on the other person’s need, not your own, not for glory. Remember, servant comes from the same word for service. When you forget about yourself in service to others is when you bump into that kingdom of heaven Jesus was describing. That’s when the electricity flows, when meaning is felt, fulfillment. Not doing good in an attempt to earn your way into heaven, but serving in the liberated knowledge that you don’t have to, that your service is your Service touches the kingdom; sacrifice opens you up, allowing the kingdom to enter you. Jesus had taught people – and his disciples – about that kingdom he had discovered in self-forgetful service. But it was in his sacrifice – giving himself completely to integrity, leading to On Tuesday I fly to Oklahoma for my 50th high school reunion. I’m the speaker for that occasion with all those kids I grew up with, who still can’t believe I’m a priest. Preparing for our time together I typed out all the years since our graduation in ‘56. As I neared the 50th year, It’s time for us to step up to the plate and renew our pledges of service, and - like Jesus did, his disciples did – to touch the kingdom, ourselves. And I challenge you on this Stewardship Sunday to take the next step of sacrifice, to give beyond your comfort level, and participate more fully in the kingdom of God that comes with self-giving. Your pledge becomes the incarnation – the embodiment – of your heart, not an attempt to earn salvation, but a celebration of its reality in your life, living out of gratitude. In that open-hearted thanksgiving 10.22.06
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