STEPPING UP

June 24, 2012

Pentecost 4

1^st Samuel 17:32-49

Mark 4:35-41

(prayer)

I enjoy a good contest.  I like to watch sports from time to time.  Here and there I might have a favorite team, but a lot of the time, I just enjoy the uncertainty of the game and enjoy seeing what can happen.

I don’t know if it is just me or if others do this too, but when I’m watching a baseball game, or whatever, where I don’t have a pre-determined favorite, I usually end up rooting for whoever’s behind.  In a basketball team where one team is down by a few points in the final minute, I want that losing team to catch up.  I love those last minute shots to win at the buzzer.

If there’s a horse race on TV, I’d rather see a jockey push his horse from well back to nose out a victory at the wire.

Even beyond sports, I like political upsets.  I cheer for the small business owner fighting the big corporation. 

Does anyone remember the scene from the movie, “Fried Green Tomatoes”, where Cathy Bates’ character was pulling up to the super market only to have the parking space (she had been patiently waiting for) taken by a car of young girls who zoom in from the other direction.  “Face it lady, we’re younger and faster”, they laughed as they walked away.  The next thing you hear is the crunch of metal on metal.  Cathy Bates was repeatedly driving into the back of the girl’s car.  “Face it girls, I’m older and I have more insurance.”

The tendency to cheer for the underdog had the audience roaring at how that scene turned out.

//

//

Last we in church here, we read about the day that the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem to visit a man named Jesse. 

God had told Samuel that it was time to find a new king to replace Saul, who had become corrupt.  Samuel expected to find the new king from among Jesse’s sons.

In spite of his youth and relatively small stature (compared to his older brothers), Samuel knew that David, the shepherd boy with his boyish good looks was the one.  That day, David son of Jesse was anointed King of Israel.

Although God is apparently decided and Samuel has performed a coronation ritual, no one was prepared to let King Saul in on the news.

As we heard in our first reading this morning, David has not yet challenged Saul for the throne, but, in fact, continues to loyally serve Saul who is well advance in years at this time.  David would bring provisions out to the soldiers and offer soothing harp music for the king.  And…at the same time, David regularly commutes back to the hills of Bethlehem to tend his family’s sheep. 

Saul had a war on his hands, with the costal people of Philistia. David’s coronation seems to have been ignored.  David’s three oldest brothers, in fact, were fighting against the Philistines in Saul’s army.  They even got annoyed when they saw David come out to the battlefield thinking he just wanted to curiously gawk at what was going on and should be back protecting what few sheep the family had left.

While David was there, he heard a sound that was all too familiar to Saul and his army: the taunting voice of the champion of the Philistines, a giant of a man whose strength and confidence was almost single-handedly winning the war.  The text says he was six cubits and a span in height – that would be plus or minus ten feet (probably an exaggeration) - but it makes the point about how totally demoralized the Israelites were at just the sound of Goliath’s voice as he taunted someone, anyone, to come out and challenge him one-on-one.  This taunt had gone on twice a day for forty days.  There was no one in Israel foolish enough to face Goliath.  No one until David came to the battlefield that day.

//

I think it is fair to say that the story of David and Goliath is so well known that it can be hard to hear it with fresh ears.  This is more than a story of God siding with the underdog.  It is a story about stepping up to what is needed and right in a situation, regardless of how futile that stepping up might appear to be.  Before David volunteer to face Goliath, he ask the soldiers “who is this Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God.”  For David, this was a battle for the integrity of his faith, more than it was a matter of war.

I get the sense that David was naïvely surprised at the fear that had grown to dominate Saul’s army.  Even promises of riches and a life of ease provided by a grateful king could not motivate even one of Saul’s soldiers to face Goliath. 

To David, it was as if God was absent from the thoughts of the soldiers.

//

You heard the story.  David was not a soldier.  Even the king’s top-of-the-line armour was not for him.  He would rely on his skills as a protective shepherd who had stopped lions and bears from harming his flock.  A sling shot and a few river stones was all he had when he faced the Philistine champion.  David won the challenge and (apparently) the war with one perfect shot to the Goliath’s forehead.

The bigger they come, the harder they fall.

A week or so at my son Matthew’s football practice.  He ended up tackling one of his fastest teammates.  Not because Matthew could ever hope to catch him in a footrace, but because Matthew was in perfect position and he used the right tackling technique.  In Atom level football, we are always reminding the players that when it comes to tackling the “low man wins”.  You’d think that the little guys might even have the advantage.  The trick is convincing them that technique compensates for size; but that can be hard to believe when you see this goliath of a ten year old bearing down on you.  But when the players begin to believe that size is not the only factor and that they are well equipped and well protected, their courage can grow!

//

//

Goliath had the size-advantage, but David the courage-advantage.  David’s courage came from his trust and faith in God.

//

Fear dictates so much of our lives in this world.  I see shows on TV like bubble-wrapped kids and I listen to the talk shows about how kids used to leave the house at 8 in the morning on a summer day and only pop by the house to eat.  Parents and kids had no cell phone to maintain constant contact. 

People seemed to be more fearful in the world today.  Unsafe playground equipment, nasty guys with nasty plans lurking in dark vans, e coli, bird flu, the swine flu, global terrorism and the fear of the slowing down of the perpetually growing economy.

When we are afraid, we tend to be very cautious with our next step.  Fear makes us actually appreciate the misery we know because it is potentially better that what miseries we fear might be ‘out there’.

//

‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ 36

37A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat; the boat was already being swamped.

38But Jesus was in the back, comfortably asleep; and the others woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’

It is interesting; this is not a situation where the disciples expected Jesus to be able to do anything to save them.  After all, they were the skilled sailors, not him.  Their death was assured as long as the wind continued to bring water into the boat that far from shore.

What they knew Jesus could give them was compassion.  They wanted comfort at this time of peril.  Misery wanted company.  ‘Care about us Jesus!’  He did more:

39Jesus rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

This was unexpected.  It was nothing short of a miracle.  Jesus showed compassion for the peril they faced as well as how that peril was making them feel. He did not just calm their fears, he catapulted away the need to be afraid. 

Of course, one of the biggest fear people have (in any era of time) is a fear of the unknown.

Jesus could see that they now displayed a new fear – a fear of what Jesus’ amazing actions might mean.  They were still afraid.

40Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41

Fear.  Faith.  Jesus sets these words up here as antonyms: opposites.  We often think of different antonyms for these words:

Fear > Calm, Safe.

Faith > Doubt, Uncertainty.

What is it about Fear that makes it an antonym for Faith: even more so than doubt?

//

Fear often thrives on a lack of confidence that something good is possible.  Fear would have us believe that we have nothing to count on; that we are alone and so should shrink away from everything.

Fear wants to crush our confidence.  Fear wants to take away our belief that ‘there is more’ than that which scares us in our midst.

Faith thrives on hope and promise and confidence and a refusal to let fear be the only voice in our head.

//

People of faith get afraid -  don’t get me wrong.  But with even a sliver of confidence that ‘we are not alone, that we live in God’s world’ – the voice of fear has company in our thoughts, and therefore, fear does not need to dominate.

Each situation that challenges us is an opportunity to see what will dominate for us: faith or fear.

Some the fear gets out in front and we avoid the opportunity because it might expose us more than we would like:  it will take too much energy or money or time.  Or one of fears favorite phrases: it won’t make any difference anyway.

We are given the hope that the gospel is ever moving, ever progressing, ever advancing. Our God invites us to look at what is before us and to venture on paths assured that we are not alone.

When fear attempts to cloud our faith, will we step up to the challenge and hold even stronger to the promises of God?

//

In today’s scripture passages, ‘daunting jobs’ needed doing - David and Jesus stepped up.  Their courage (in the context of fear) benefited everyone around them.

One of the wonderful metaphoric messages of the story from Mark four is that Jesus’ confidence fed the faith of everyone around him.  Even as they struggled to understand what happened, Jesus invited them to set aside the fear that was holding them back from trusting in the power of God.

//

I imagine that young David’s act of heroism inspired the people of Israel.  Years later when he would ascend to the throne, the confidence he portrayed on the battlefield against the Philistines would have allowed the people of Israel to have confidence in him as ruler.

//

//

The struggle between faith and fear is not always one of life and death.  Fear is also quite good at holding us back in more mundane ways.  Fear gets us thinking narrowly and selfishly.  Fear closes our hearts so that the needs of others must be waved away in favour of looking out only for ourselves.

It is natural – it is easy.

But there is hope.

Jesus is our source of calm and confidence.  Jesus’ over-reaching love and compassion is our model for living his Way today.

As personal as it is, faith is ultimately overflowing with group benefits.  Fear is about me and only me.  Faith is about a relationship with the mystery that is God.  Relationships have to be about more than me.

//

The power of faith allows this to become real for us.

//

Let us pray…

We are grateful, God of Wonder that even in our quietest moment, you are there.  In our deepest distress, you are there.  You are our source of all calm and protection.  Give us the courage to trust that we are not alone.  Amen.

#637VU  “Jesus Saviour, Pilot Me”

UNEXPECTED

June 17, 2012

Pentecost 3

1^st Samuel 15:34 – 16:13

Mark 4:26-34

(prayer)

Two weekends ago, I was with a few hundred United Church people at SAIT in Calgary for a meeting of the Alberta and Northwest Conference.

The structure of the United Church has four levels:  the Pastoral Charge (with one or more congregations); the Presbytery (a grouping of churches in a region –Yellowhead Presbytery is the UCs from Jasper to Ft McMurray, excluding Edmonton (Leduc is basically the bottom right corner of this large ecclesial triangle); Nine different presbyteries form Alberta and Northwest Conference, which is the part of the UCC that includes Alberta, Northern BC, the Yukon and Northwest Territories (and the odd border town in Saskatchewan).  The Conference meets at least once every three years – always in a year that the General Council of the UCC will be meeting: the GC is the fourth and national level of the church.

// Okay…enough about structure.  One of the things I love most about Conference meetings is the opportunities to connect with people from different churches (ministers and lay people – our nametags never say who is who, so we meet each other simply as UC people and the distinctions of who does what in their churches back home is largely un-necessary.  Sometimes, you can be unexpectedly surprised by some wrong assumptions of who you thought might be ministers or not. 

I love that aspect of the United Church – leadership from within is so much a part of who we are, that titles sometimes just get in the way of the relationships we forge.

//

My one major practical disappointment for this Conference is that we were still largely paper driven.  There is a need for people to have an agenda book with all of the reports and motions that are going to be part of the meeting.  Granted, we use a lot less paper than we used to - because of the ability to project new things on screens…but I guess I was naïve to think that this might be the year when we would have the option of an electronic agenda book giving people the chance to make use of tablets and laptops rather than printers.  Ah well, maybe at the next meeting in three years.

At the very least, I used a long recycled binder to hold all my paper.  I have used the same binder for the last half dozen Conference meetings.  On the inside covers, I have doodled a few thoughts over the years from things people have said.

Several years back someone was talking about the life-lesson-story or ‘Parable’ of the Mustard Seed: Mark’s version of which was read earlier. I wish I could remember who spoke about the parable (I’d love to give her or him credit for the insight I gained), but at least I remember the message. 

In Jesus’ day, in his part of the world, mustard plants grew easily.  They were adaptable and resilient.  When they took hold in a field, they could dominate over other species.  In other words, although a practical plant in limited ways, mustard bushes were kind of a weed.

I know that the most obvious level of understanding in Jesus’ parable is that wonderful things can develop from the smallest places: an idea, a person’s abilities and influence, even faith itself, may start small and seemingly insignificant, but can become so much more when growth is given the opportunity to happen.

For Jesus, the mustard seed and plant is a metaphor for what the realm of God is like – God may be a small part of our lives sometimes, even insignificant at times, but allow it to grow and you’ll be surprised how much support and influence can come by connecting the human experience with the divine.

But I absolutely love being taken to a deeper level in the parable. 

Maybe the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, a weed – maybe the kingdom of God is like a dandelion - once is takes root, once it takes hold it can be tough to remove. 

Maybe the kingdom of God has multiplying effects – with the right combination of rain, sun and wind (of nourishment, nurture and spirit), it can spread far and wide. 

Maybe the Kingdom of God is like a dandelion, whose beauty is easier to see when we look at life with the innocence of a child.  Jesus did once say that people needed to “be like children” to know the realm of God.

//

//

And like weeds, maybe the Kingdom of God can change the landscape in ways that not everyone appreciates: especially those who obsess on appearances and must have everything ‘looking good’: neat ordered, predictable.  Weeds can really bother us when we are deeply fearful of change and the things we don’t control.

The Kingdom of God is like a dandelion.  Hmm.  I like that unexpected interpretation of Jesus’ parable.

//

Many centuries before Jesus, as ancient Israel was developing as a nation, the people looked at how other nations were structured and longed for a central government.  Being governed by the Law (the Torah) interpreted by wise local judges was fine for a tribal confederacy, but they were now a settled nation – they demanded a king.  And so the prophet Samuel, whom his mother Hannah had dedicated to God’s service from a young age, anointed Saul to be Israel’s first king.

Over time, Samuel realized that Saul was not the king he expected him to be.  He was not a wise leader.  He seemed more bent on picking fights with neighbouring nations than tending to the well-being of his own people.

Samuel openly regretted making Saul, king.  As we read at the start of our Hebrew Bible passage today, Samuel and Saul eventually had nothing to do with each other.

Samuel grieved over Saul, even as he continued as king.  Then Samuel felt called by God to seek out Israel’s next king.  There was a family in Bethlehem – a father, Jesse, who had eight sons.

Samuel went to meet Jesse and trusted that God would somehow let him know which son was to succeed Saul.

Son #1, Eliab – he looked the part – tall and strong.  Surely he’d be the one.  No.  This wasn’t going to be about physical stature but the character of the heart.

Abinadab?  No.

Shammah? No.

And the four other sons of Jesse who had come to meet Samuel.  No.

Had Samuel misunderstood God’s intentions?  He was just so sure that he’d find a king among Jesse’s sons.

“Is this everyone?” he asked, almost out of desperation,  “Is this all of your sons?”

“Well” Jesse reluctantly admitted, “there is one more, the youngest.  But he’s not what your looking for.  He’s out in the pasture.  He’s just a shepherd boy.”

Young, small David couldn’t be the next king.

He was good looking enough, he had nice eyes – he had a healthy complexion.

[If we step back and look at the way David is described here, we could say it’s almost feminine: nice eyes, rosy cheeks.  I read this as say that he had a boyish look to him – he was not yet mature.  He was a child, not ready for a man’s job.]

But obviously, what God saw in David’s heart was what God was looking for >>> David, the youngest son of Jesse, would be king of Israel!

Samuel got out his container of oil and anointed David as the next King of Israel.

The turnover of power would not happen for many years, but the seed had been planted and Samuel knew that God intended it to grow. 

[next week, we will read one of the most famous stories in the Bible involving King Saul and David – I won’t spoil it, other than to say it involves a giant].

//

Seeds grow.  When nourished and nurtured, they grow.  Jesus lived an amazingly open love in the world.  People complained many times that he was too welcoming – hanging around with people who didn’t deserve the attention and respect he showed them.

But how could Jesus talk about God’s unconditional love and not show it?  How could he not challenge the barriers of restrictive expectation that people put up?

When the St. David’s Church Council had our retreat a few weeks ago, I was impressed how much care and thought people put into our church mission statement:  

The mission of St. David’s United Church is to welcome all to participate in its nurturing Christian community and to inspire its people to serve others as Christ taught

This is summed up in our church motto:  that we seek to be a church that welcomes in and reaches out.  Sometimes, I know that this challenges us – do we really want to be welcoming to everyone; do we really see it as our ‘place’ to get involved outside our comfortable building.

I felt inspired to tweet a little insight as we retreated:

Gospel = living in the reality that there is always a new edge to inclusiveness.

//

It’s true.  We make bold strides in welcoming in and reaching out and it seems that as soon as we are done patting ourselves on the back for that, we see a new wall that is in need to a-tumblin’-down.

//

The human spirit can surprise us sometimes: strength in difficult times; compassion overflowing; a capacity to learn and grow beyond what we once thought to be edges. The divine spirit moves in ways beyond our understanding – knowing more than we can imagine, loving deeper than we can open our hearts.

In Jesus’ Way of looking at our existence, the divine and the human meet.

As we allow the unexpectedly inclusive love of God take root in our lives, we can witness our lives discovering even deeper meaning and even more profound purpose.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

#106MV  “I Am the Dream”

A SONG OF FAITH

June 10, 2012 - 87^th Anniversary of Church Union

Pentecost 2

Psalm 138

2^nd Corinthians 4:13-51

For a message this Sunday, the most recent Statement of Faith of the United Church (2006) was read in its entirety.

[slide]

God is Holy Mystery,

beyond complete knowledge,

above perfect description.

Yet,

in love,

the one eternal God seeks relationship.

So God creates the universe

   and with it the possibility of being and relating.

God tends the universe,

   mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.

God enlivens the universe,

   guiding all things toward harmony with their Source.

Grateful for God’s loving action,

We cannot keep from singing.

[slide]

With the Church through the ages,

we speak of God as one and triune:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We also speak of God as

   Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer

   God, Christ, and Spirit

   Mother, Friend, and Comforter

   Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,

   and in other ways that speak faithfully of

the One on whom our hearts rely,

the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.

We witness to Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love.

[slide]

God is creative and self-giving,

   generously moving

   in all the near and distant corners of the universe.

Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.

Our first response to God’s providence is gratitude.

We sing thanksgiving.

[slide]

Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery,

   of living things, diverse and interdependent,

   of complex patterns of growth and evolution,

   of subatomic particles and cosmic swirls,

we sing of God the Creator,

the Maker and Source of all that is.

Each part of creation reveals unique aspects of God the Creator,

   who is both in creation and beyond it.

All parts of creation, animate and inanimate, are related.

All creation is good. [slide]

We sing of the Creator,

   who made humans to live and move

   and have their being in God.

In and with God,

   we can direct our lives toward right relationship

   with each other and with God.

We can discover our place as one strand in the web of life.

We can grow in wisdom and compassion.

We can recognize all people as kin.

We can accept our mortality and finitude, not as a curse,

   but as a challenge to make our lives and choices matter.

Made in the image of God,

we yearn for the fulfillment that is life in God.

Yet we choose to turn away from God.

We surrender ourselves to sin,

   a disposition revealed in selfishness, cowardice, or apathy.

Becoming bound and complacent

   in a web of false desires and wrong choices,

   we bring harm to ourselves and others.

This brokenness in human life and community

   is an outcome of sin.

Sin is not only personal

   but accumulates

   to become habitual and systemic forms

   of injustice, violence, and hatred.

We are all touched by this brokenness:

   the rise of selfish individualism

      that erodes human solidarity;

   the concentration of wealth and power

      without regard for the needs of all;

   the toxins of religious and ethnic bigotry;

   the degradation of the blessedness of human bodies

      and human passions through sexual exploitation;

   the delusion of unchecked progress and limitless growth

   that threatens our home, the earth;

   the covert despair that lulls many into numb complicity

   with empires and systems of domination.

We sing lament and repentance.

[slide]

Yet evil does not—cannot—

   undermine or overcome the love of God.

God forgives,

   and calls all of us to confess our fears and failings

   with honesty and humility.

God reconciles,

   and calls us to repent the part we have played

   in damaging our world, ourselves, and each other.

God transforms,

   and calls us to protect the vulnerable,

   to pray for deliverance from evil,

   to work with God for the healing of the world,

   that all might have abundant life.

We sing of grace.

[slide]

The fullness of life includes

   moments of unexpected inspiration and courage lived out,

   experiences of beauty, truth, and goodness,

   blessings of seeds and harvest,

      friendship and family, intellect and sexuality,

   the reconciliation of persons through justice

      and communities living in righteousness,

      and the articulation of meaning.

And so we sing of God the Spirit,

      who from the beginning has swept over the face of creation,

      animating all energy and matter

      and moving in the human heart.

We sing of God the Spirit, [slide]

  faithful and untameable,

   who is creatively and redemptively active in the world.

The Spirit challenges us to celebrate the holy

   not only in what is familiar,

   but also in that which seems foreign.

We sing of the Spirit,

   who speaks our prayers of deepest longing

   and enfolds our concerns and confessions,

   transforming us and the world.

We offer worship

   as an outpouring of gratitude and awe

   and a practice of opening ourselves

   to God’s still, small voice of comfort,

   to God’s rushing whirlwind of challenge.

Through word, music, art, and sacrament,

   in community and in solitude,

   God changes our lives, our relationships, and our world.

We sing with trust.

[slide]

Scripture is our song for the journey, the living word

   passed on from generation to generation

   to guide and inspire,

   that we might wrestle a holy revelation for our time and place

   from the human experiences

      and cultural assumptions of another era.

God calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

The Spirit breathes revelatory power into scripture,

   bestowing upon it a unique and normative place

   in the life of the community.

The Spirit judges us critically when we abuse scripture

   by interpreting it narrow-mindedly,

   using it as a tool of oppression, exclusion, or hatred.

The wholeness of scripture testifies

   to the oneness and faithfulness of God.

The multiplicity of scripture testifies to its depth:

   two testaments, four gospels,

   contrasting points of view held in tension—

all a faithful witness to the One and Triune God,

the Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love.

[slide]

We find God made known in Jesus of Nazareth,

and so we sing of God the Christ, the Holy One embodied.

We sing of Jesus,

   a Jew,

   born to a woman in poverty

   in a time of social upheaval

   and political oppression.

He knew human joy and sorrow.

So filled with the Holy Spirit was he

that in him people experienced the presence of God among them.

We sing praise to God incarnate.

Jesus announced the coming of God’s reign—

   a commonwealth not of domination

   but of peace, justice, and reconciliation.

He healed the sick and fed the hungry.

He forgave sins and freed those held captive

   by all manner of demonic powers.

He crossed barriers of race, class, culture, and gender.

He preached and practised unconditional love—

   love of God, love of neighbour,

   love of friend, love of enemy—

and he commanded his followers to love one another

   as he had loved them.

Because his witness to love was threatening,

   those exercising power sought to silence Jesus.

He suffered abandonment and betrayal,

   state-sanctioned torture and execution.

He was crucified. [slide]

// // //

But death was not the last word.

[slide]

God raised Jesus from death,

   turning sorrow into joy,

   despair into hope.

We sing of Jesus raised from the dead.

We sing hallelujah.

By becoming flesh in Jesus,

   God makes all things new.

In Jesus’ life, teaching, and self-offering,

   God empowers us to live in love.

In Jesus’ crucifixion,

   God bears the sin, grief, and suffering of the world.

In Jesus’ resurrection,

   God overcomes death.

Nothing separates us from the love of God.

The Risen Christ lives today,

   present to us and the source of our hope.

In response to who Jesus was

   and to all he did and taught,

   to his life, death, and resurrection,

   and to his continuing presence with us through the Spirit,

we celebrate him as

   the Word made flesh,

   the one in whom God and humanity are perfectly joined,

   the transformation of our lives,

the Christ.

[slide]

We sing of a church

   seeking to continue the story of Jesus

   by embodying Christ’s presence in the world.

We are called together by Christ

   as a community of broken but hopeful believers,

   loving what he loved,

   living what he taught,

   striving to be faithful servants of God

   in our time and place.

Our ancestors in faith

   bequeath to us experiences of their faithful living;

   upon their lives our lives are built.

Our living of the gospel makes us a part of this communion of saints,

   experiencing the fulfillment of God’s reign

   even as we actively anticipate a new heaven and a new earth.

The church has not always lived up to its vision.

It requires the Spirit to reorient it,

   helping it to live an emerging faith while honouring tradition,

   challenging it to live by grace rather than entitlement,

for we are called to be a blessing to the earth.

We sing of God’s good news lived out,

a church with purpose:

   faith nurtured and hearts comforted,

   gifts shared for the good of all,

   resistance to the forces that exploit and marginalize,

   fierce love in the face of violence,

   human dignity defended,

   members of a community held and inspired by God,

      corrected and comforted,

   instrument of the loving Spirit of Christ,

   creation’s mending.

We sing of God’s mission.

We are each given particular gifts of the Spirit. [slide]

For the sake of the world,

   God calls all followers of Jesus to Christian ministry.

In the church,

   some are called to specific ministries of leadership,

   both lay and ordered;

   some witness to the good news;

   some uphold the art of worship;

   some comfort the grieving and guide the wandering;

   some build up the community of wisdom;

   some stand with the oppressed and work for justice.

To embody God’s love in the world,

   the work of the church requires the ministry and discipleship

   of all believers.

In grateful response to God’s abundant love,

   we bear in mind our integral connection

   to the earth and one another;

we participate in God’s work of healing and mending creation.

To point to the presence of the holy in the world,

   the church receives, consecrates, and shares

   visible signs of the grace of God.

In company with the churches

   of the Reformed and Methodist traditions,

we celebrate two sacraments as gifts of Christ:

baptism and holy communion.

In these sacraments the ordinary things of life

—water, bread, wine—

point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,

   teaching us to be alert

   to the sacred in the midst of life.

[slide]

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

   we are born into the brokenness of this world.

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

   we are surrounded by God’s redeeming love.

Baptism by water in the name of the Holy Trinity

   is the means by which we are received, at any age,

   into the covenanted community of the church.

   It is the ritual that signifies our rebirth in faith

   and cleansing by the power of God.

Baptism signifies the nurturing, sustaining,

   and transforming power of God’s love

   and our grateful response to that grace.

[slide]

Carrying a vision of creation healed and restored,

   we welcome all in the name of Christ.

Invited to the table where none shall go hungry,

   we gather as Christ’s guests and friends.

In holy communion

   we are commissioned to feed as we have been fed,

   forgive as we have been forgiven,

   love as we have been loved.

The open table speaks of the shining promise

   of barriers broken and creation healed.

In the communion meal, wine poured out and bread broken,

   we remember Jesus.

We remember not only the promise but also the price that he paid

   for who he was,

   for what he did and said,

   and for the world’s brokenness.

We taste the mystery of God’s great love for us,

and are renewed in faith and hope.

We place our hope in God. [slide]

We sing of a life beyond life

   and a future good beyond imagining:

   a new heaven and a new earth,

   the end of sorrow, pain, and tears,

   Christ’s return and life with God,

   the making new of all things.

We yearn for the coming of that future,

even while participating in eternal life now.

Divine creation does not cease

   until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration

   with the common ground of all being.

As children of the Timeless One,

   our time-bound lives will find completion

   in the all-embracing Creator.

In the meantime, we embrace the present,

   embodying hope, loving our enemies,

   caring for the earth,

choosing life.

Grateful for God’s loving action,

   we cannot keep from singing.

Creating and seeking relationship,

   in awe and trust,

we witness to Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love.

Amen.