Psalm 91!!!!!!! First Presbyterian, Pasadena II Corinthians 8:1-7!!!!!!!! November 1, 2015 THEY GAVE THEMSELVES FIRST TO THE LORD James S. Currie! There s a small Presbyterian church in the middle of farm country in northeast Missouri. It s off the beaten path, not even visible from the nearest paved road. There s one home in walking distance. Otherwise, the church building is surrounded by farmland and a neatly-kept cemetery. At one time it had about 60 members. Today it has 46 members. It works with another Presbyterian congregation about seven miles away. That church has about 55 members and is in a community that has a population of 77 souls. In spite of their size, both congregations have been active, vibrant in the life of the presbytery. Ironically, the church seemingly in the middle of nowhere with a cemetery right next to it had the greatest sense of the larger church and of outreach. While they, no doubt, had concerns about the future of their own congregation, their primary interest and concern always seemed to be, How can we be the church now? In what ways can we support the mission of the larger church now? Where are the needs in which we can participate now? They were by no means wealthy. They were small in number, but were clearly rooted and grounded in an understanding of the gospel that had to do with mission and outreach.! I thought of that congregation as I read and reflected on the passage we read this morning from Paul s letter to the Corinthian church. In that letter, of course, he was commending to the church in Corinth the church in Philippi. Paul was trying to raise money to support the church in Jerusalem which was going through hard times. While 1
small and not very wealthy, the Philippian church, Paul says, begged earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints -- and this, not merely as we expected, they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us,... (II Cor. 8:4-5).! The church at Philippi was by no means perfect, any more than any church is perfect. But as Paul tries to encourage the Corinthian church to practice generosity and to see itself as part of the larger Christian enterprise, he can point to the Philippians who, having far less material prosperity, have at this early stage already learned the grace of generosity.! Begging earnestly, the privilege of sharing, they gave themselves first to the Lord... On this All Saints Day we remember with gratitude all those who have gone before us and who have helped shape who we are. As we consider those persons, if we are honest, we will acknowledge that they were no more perfect than we are or than the folks in the church at Philippi were. Unlike our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, we do not believe that being a saint depends on what great deeds a person may have done, let alone any miracles that might be attributed to us. No, any claim to being a saint is based on what God has already done in Jesus Christ and our acknowledgement of that and eagerly making ourselves available to be in service to him.! Saints are those who give themselves first to the Lord. Saints are persons who are clear about who they are and who they aren t. They are persons who take the leap of faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and then spend every day exploring what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Whether it s being the best teacher one can be or being the best bank clerk one can be or being the best husband or wife or parent or grandparent one can be or being the best administrator or whatever one s job is, doing it 2
with integrity and cheerfulness. For some of us that s a daily challenge. For others it may seem to come more naturally. Regardless, it s the effort that rubs off on others.! No doubt, many of you have heard of the House for All Sinners and Saints. It s in Denver, Colorado and was started by a woman who was still a student at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Although it s a United Methodist school, Nadia Bolz-Weber, the founder of this church, is a Lutheran (ELCA). The other pastor, Reagan Humber, is Episcopalian. You can tell from that fact that it s not the traditional church. For one thing, their time of worship is Sundays at 5 p.m. And yet, their tradition is important to them, but it does not dominate them. They celebrate the Eucharist at every Sunday worship and hold morning prayers every Thursday at 7 a.m. The membership is about the size of ours here in congregation. What they are trying to do there, as I understand it, is to re-think what church is. It is traditional in some respects, but very non-traditional in other respects. It s an attempt to create an authentic spiritual experience that meets the needs of a generation for which church has become meaningless. That format is not for everyone, but it is meeting a need there, and it s important for us to recognize that and applaud what they are about.! A house for sinners and saints. That s what any church should be, isn t it? For the saints and sinners are one and the same. No one is better than another. All of us have had painful experiences at one time or another. All of us have skeletons in our closets; we ve said and done things of which we are not proud. We re all recovering hypocrites, are we not, taking life one day at a time, trying to be the persons God intends us to be.! One of the wonderful things about Scripture is that it s made up of people precisely like us. Can you imagine choosing a murderer as one favored by God? And 3
yet, God chose Moses, a murderer. Can you imagine God choosing a liar and a cheat as someone through whom to work God s will? Probably not. And yet, Jacob who lied to his father and cheated his brother out of his birthright was the very person God chose. Can you imagine God choosing someone who would become an adulterer to be the leader of God s people? And yet, God did precisely that in choosing David to be king of Israel and who would compose psalms of contrition as well as of praise which are included in the Psalter. Can you imagine God choosing to come into the world in some small, relatively insignificant village in some relatively insignificant part of the world to two relatively insignificant and powerless persons? And yet, that s exactly what God did.! I think that that s what the church is like. I think that that s what the church in Missouri is like. I think that s what the church at Corinth was like. And I think that that s what the church at Philippi was like -- begging earnestly for the privilege of sharing, having first given themselves to the Lord. And I think that s pretty much what we are like -- the church of sinners and saints, all one and the same. We are indeed grateful for those who have gone before us, but what makes any of us different is that, while we are all sinners, we all belong to the same gracious and forgiving God who can work through us, regardless of who we are or what we ve done.! The church in Denver has nothing on the rest of us, at least in terms of its makeup. We are all saints and sinners. But how we make ourselves useful to the kingdom and how we exhibit that kingdom in a genuine and authentic way is what we as a church are about.! We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. May we, like them, give ourselves first to the Lord and then, having done that, beg earnestly for the 4
privilege of sharing in the life of the church -- the whole church, the Church Universal, the church of Jesus Christ.! Thanks be to God for that privilege! 5