november 22, 2009

Anna Blaedel
First UMC, Osage
11.22.09
Consecration/Charge Conference/Christ the King Sunday
Psalm 126
Matthew 6:25-33

“Grace and Peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Grace and Peace to you, you, from our Lord, Jesus, the Christ.”

Have you heard this greeting before? It is a common greeting, in the life of the church, and between church folk. Grace and peace to you. From our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus. The Christ. The Anointed One. The greeting comes from Paul. This is how Paul started each of his letters—to the Romans, the Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Thessalonians, Philemon…

It is a common greeting. Traditional. Reminding us, when we gather, to pass the peace, to enter anew the grace of God, the connection we share through Christ—the one who strengthens us. But it didn’t start as a common greeting. It was a risky greeting. A radical declaration. A political rallying cry. Fightin’ words, almost.

You see, before Jesus was born, another Lord, Ceasar Augustus, the first undisputed ruler of the Roman Empire, was named the divine Son of God. Words we use to declare our devotion to Jesus were reserved for him. Lord. Savior. Redeemer. And, words like grace and Prince of Peace were used only to refer to the emperor. Later, when Nero became the ruler, he was also declared “divine” by the majority of the population, and became known as the Prince of Peace.
When Paul experienced the transformation and healing power of God and began his ministry, he started going from community to community preaching, and Paul started transferring these titles to Jesus. “Grace and peace to you, from our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Meaning, not from Nero. Needless to say, this did not sit well with Nero. Paul knew he was taking a risk, was issuing a challenge, every time he extended this greeting. Risking it all, for faith. For what is real, and right. Reminding the faithful to risk, too. For the sake of building the Kingdom of God.

Risk: the possibility that something unexpected will happen to expose someone or something to the unknown. Risk: uncertain; unpredictable; precarious. Risk: to put on the line. Risk: opportunity for growth.
Paul knew that the Good News of Jesus called him to take risks.

Now I am fairly risk-averse. I am not always so comfortable with that which is uncertain, unpredictable, precarious. I’d rather know how something unknown is going to unfold. I’d rather have a roadmap, and a game plan…And, I don’t know if you know this about me or not, but I am a worrier. I can find it in me to worry about almost anything. I worry about the past. I worry about the future. I worry about big things that matter, and I worry about small things that don’t, not really. I worry if something seems impossible, and I worry if something appears possible. I worry about things utterly out of my control, and I worry about things I have the power to influence. I worry about my own life, and I worry about the lives of others—family, friends, folks in this congregation. I even worry about how much I worry! I am a worrier. Which means, I believe, that I have something to learn from Paul. And, I certainly have something to learn from this morning’s gospel text from Matthew.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Creator feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will God not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the people of little faith, of shallow faith, who strive for all these things; and indeed your loving Creator knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the reign of God, and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

It is fitting, I believe, that this piece of scripture happens to find us in worship today—the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Christ the King Sunday. Charge Conference Sunday. Consecration Sunday. The last Sunday before we begin our journey toward Bethlehem, and the waiting and watching that mark Advent.

Please hang with me, if the connections aren’t yet clear.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving. Giving thanks, not for things, but for life. For relationships. For signs of God’s reign, here and now. If we live into and out of a spirit of gratitude, we will not worry. Or at least, not as much. It is almost impossible to feel grateful and to worry, at the same time. To give thanks, and give in to anxiety. It just can’t happen. Gratitude is about recognizing abundance. And we all, we all, experience abundance. Worry is about fear, fearing scarcity (whether it be scarcity of resources, or time, or love, or happiness…) Do not worry about your life…Look around you, the gospel writer implores. Do you not see the evidence of God’s care for you all around, overflowing and abundant? If God pays attention to the needs of grass and birds and things like this, how can you spend even a moment wondering if God is paying attention to you, and your needs? If God’s goodness seems scarce, rather than abundant, we’re not paying attention to God at work in our lives and world.

The Good News of God’s love, always with us, always around us, always within us, asks us to risk. To anchor ourselves to belief, not fear.

And, Christ the King Sunday. Grace and peace to you, from our Lord, Jesus, the Christ. Did you know Jesus never talks about himself in the Gospels? In all of scripture? He never asks that people believe in him. He does ask that people follow him. He doesn’t assert himself as the Divine Child of God. He does teach that we are all children of God, which means we have sacred blessing, and sacred responsibility. Jesus does talk a lot about the Kingdom, or the Basileia, in Greek, we’ve translated it Kingdom, or Reign. Bringing the Basileia. Being the Basileia. Becoming the Basileia. The Kingdom of God isn’t just about identity. It is about priorities. Not just about Jesus, who Jesus is. But also about what Jesus does, how Jesus lives, and what Jesus teaches us to do and how Jesus commands us to live.

Maya Angelou writes about this important distinction. She says, “Many things continue to amaze me, even well into my 7th decade. I’m startled when people inform me they are already Christians. My first response is the question, “Already? It seems to me that becoming a Christian is a lifelong endeavor.”

Becoming Christ-like. Striving for the basileia, the reign of God. It’s not about calling ourselves Christians. It’s about striving to be Christ-like, in word and action. Which means growing and changing and stretching ourselves, and our faith, and our faithfulness.

The Good News of God’s Kingdom coming here, on earth as it is in heaven, asks us to step into the unknown. To dream. To vision. To hope. And, to act. Which means, to risk.

And, Charge Conference Sunday. When we lift up leaders and share visions and name ministry expectations and poise ourselves to strive first for the reign of God in the coming year of ministry together.
In her recent book, Mindset, Carol Dweck describes two different mindsets we might take when we look toward the future. A fixed mindset, and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset values certainty. It seeks out what is unchanging. With a fixed mindset, you stick with what you know, and do what you already know how to do. With a growth mindset, you see challenges as opportunities, you take risks to grow, you step into the unknown, guided by core values and beliefs.

Psalm 126 shows us, I believe, what it is like to put on the mind of Christ, a growth mindset. Remember the psalm—When God showed up, we began to dream. We saw what God could do, and began to envision what we could do. We face all this unknown, and yet still we laugh and shout for joy, because God is here! God, who can make water of life flow into the most parched lives and souls; God who can see someone weeping, and care and love so much the tears cease, and we remember how to laugh, and begin to shout for joy! God, bearing hope, when hope seems impossible.

Charge Conference, while sometimes enshrouded by all the forms and committee meetings and nominations and signatures—Charge Conference really is, really should be, about hope. What we hope to see happen here. What we hope to do, together. How we hope God will guide us, and enliven us. Karl Barth said hope is the act of taking the next step. Hope is the act of taking the next step.

Hope is not being sure that we can deepen our faith, or meet our ministry expectations, or increase our active membership, or increase our budget, or pay our apportionments. Hope is taking the next step, anyway. By turning in our pledge card. By saying yes to offering our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. By coming to church. By tending to the least of these. By reaching out to our neighbor, in our pew, or across town, or across the world. Hope is showing up, and saying, “Together, with God, let’s try!”

The Good News of God’s reign is that it involves each and every one of us, invites and includes and needs each and every one of us.

And, Consecration Sunday. Consecrate—to make or declare something sacred; to dedicate to a divine purpose. To sanctify, bless, make holy, make sacred, dedicate to God, set apart, reserve. Today we consecrate our pledges to each other and to God—we declare ourselves to God, and dedicate ourselves to the sacred task of striving for the Kingdom, and setting apart our gifts to return generously to God what God has already given us.

I have been praying a lot about these pledge cards, about our stewardship drive, about this day of consecration. I have challenged all of us to turn in a pledge card. Issuing a challenge like this is risky. I have to face the possibility that you all will not step up to this challenge. This week I ran into two faithful members of this congregation. They have given faithfully and generously of their gifts and presence and service and prayers for many years. But, they shared that this year they will be turning in a pledge card for the first time. I don’t know if you can begin to imagine my joy! This is, a sign of the Kingdom coming!

Taking a risk, and seeing what is possible unfolding…I believe to my core that each of us has something to give, and that each of us is called to give what we have, and that pledging a commitment is an act of faith. And, I know that asking you to step up your giving means I need to be willing to step up mine.

This past week I was sitting around a table of other United Methodist pastors, talking with Anne Lippencott, our District Superintendent. At one point, Anne referenced how pastors should model tithing to our congregations. None of us said anything, but the nervous fidgeting and lack of eye contact and shifting in our seats leads me to think I wasn’t the only pastor at that table who hasn’t been tithing. Last year, I pledged enough to make me a little nervous. Enough to feel generous. Enough to make me rethink my budget and reorder my priorities. But I didn’t, I have never, tithed. This year, for the first time, I am going to. I’m going to try. I’m going to pledge 10% because it’s what the Bible commands, what Jesus teaches. Because the command toward economic justice, runs throughout the Bible, where those who have give to those who don’t. I’m going to try tithing because I know it will have to be a spiritual practice. That I will have to pray and trust and depend on God and reorder my life to make it possible. I’ll have to set aside some of my instinct to worry, or else I won’t make it through!
I have come across a number of pithy quotes as I have prayerfully considering (and, if I’m honest, worrying about!) tithing. Ruth Ross wrote, “We won’t even attempt to do what we do not believe at a deep level we can do or deserve.” I believe it is within possibility for me to give 10% to the church, if I make it a priority, and I believe at a deep level that God, that this community of faith, deserves it, is worthy of this priority, and sacrifice. Winston Churchill wrote, “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” I want my life to be a generous one. And, while this pledge is risky, while I know I might fail, I remember the words of one of my favorite theologians, Alfred North Whitehead, who wrote, “The worship of God is not a rule of safety—it is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable.” An adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable. Risky. Faithful.

Paul, taking a risk, entering the opportunity by greeting people in the name of Christ, not of the emperor, by naming Jesus as the source of grace and peace. The worship of God is not a rule of safety—it is an adventure of the spirit. I pray my commitment to tithing will be an adventure of spirit, that it will open opportunities for me—to be faithful, to grow in generosity, to enable new vision and ministry, to learn to pray and trust, when it would be easier to worry.

The Good News of God’s generosity invites us to not only receive, but also respond. With open hearts. And minds. And yes, wallets.

And, it is the final Sunday before we enter the season of Advent. Everything changes next Sunday. Next Sunday, we receive and remember the promise that God is coming, choosing to become flesh, to dwell among us, to take on all the risk and responsibility of becoming human, in order to love more fully and lead more clearly. We are invited to hope, and it is a risky kind of hope, to believe that something not-yet might be possible.

The Good News of Emmanuel, God-With-Us, coming to us, entering the world, being born anew in our hearts and lives and relationships and church. The Good News of Emmanuel, daring us to believe, when we have nothing but God’s promise that it will be so.

Grace and Peace to you, from our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Friend, Jesus, the Christ.

There can be no hope without taking the next step. There can be no transformation, without challenging what has been. There can be no growth without entering the opportunity, and risking what seems impossible. There can be no faith, without hearing the Good News, receiving the Good News, living the Good News, sharing the Good News.

Billy Graham said the test of a preacher is that her congregation goes away saying, not “What a lovely sermon!” but “I will do something!”

May it be so. Amen, and amen.

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