Wonderful Creations

September 8, 2019 Psalm 139 Year C Wonderful Creations 13th Sunday after Pentecost Children’s Time Let the children take turns to look at themselves in a mirror as they pass it around. What parts are you thankful for? God created each of us to be just as we are. God created each part of ourselves to work together as a whole. Thank God for all of us – our face, body talents, personality - gift from God. 3. Give the children pots of bubbles to blow over the baby being dedicated or handfuls of flower petals to throw over the baby and the baby’s family. Explain that, as they blow the bubbles or scatter the petals, they are to pray a silent prayer for the baby or think of a special blessing (give them an example of a blessing to spark their creativity) for the baby. You can do this outside after the service if it isn’t appropriate to blow bubbles in your church. A sheet on the floor can catch drips from bubbles or the flower petals for easier cleanup. If your tradition includes question/s to the congregation asking them to take responsibility for the child, add a question addressed especially to the children and youth of the congregation, e.g. “Will you be a big kid friend (or big brother/sister in Christ) to NAME? Will you look out for him/her? Will you show him/her how to live like Jesus?” Scripture will be read from United Methodist Hymnal - #854 Stewardship moment – Brian McIntyre is the ministry director for Shine FM – he was with us last week. He tells the story of a father who took his son to McDonalds. He bought a large helping of fries and set it in front of his son to eat. He watched his son eat the fries. And decided to grab a fry to eat for himself. The son immediately grabbed the container, and said dad, no get your own fries. These are mine. That is our relationship with God. God provides for us, but when God asked us for that one fry – we grab ahold of the container and say that this is ours – when everything that we have was given by God. Stewarship lesson is that we can share what we have with God as a way of saying thank you. Our chance to give God one fry – excited to give . When we think of God, we think of God as King, as a ruler, as a old man with a white beard. But how many of us think of God as President of the knitting circle. I recently saw a picture of God as a old man sitting down knitting. Psalm 139 says that God knit each of us as a wonderful creation. James Limburg wrote that he has a mother-in-law who has knit Norwegian sweaters for each of the six members of his family. They are beautiful and warm, able to keep out both the cold and the rain. Limburg watched as she knit those sweaters. The process is very complicated, keeping the pattern straight, getting the design just right. But as Limburg points out: “It is complicated to knit a Norwegian sweater. But it is much more complicated to knit a Nowegian! Or an African, or an American.”2 No wonder David exclaims: “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are complicated, sophisticated, welldesigned creatures. Fearfully and wonderfully made—I guess! God the knitter does some kind of knitting. I’ve seen a Frank and Ernest cartoon where the title characters are leaving church wearing less than spectacular clothes. And one says to the other: “The way I understand it, though our clothes may be plain, we have famous-maker bodies.” Yes we do—thanks to the love of God the Knitter. This psalm has one of the most important messages of the bible. Because even though God loves to sit with his friends and knit wonderful creations – God is still the most powerful force in the universe. God is omnipotent, - all powerful, but also God is omniscient – all knowing. God knows everything there is to know. Have you ever been around a know it all – sometimes it can be aggravating to be with someone who thinks they know everything. But God is the real thing – does know everything. God knows everything about everything – since God created everything. But the most important thing that God knows is you and me – God knitted each of us by hand, one by one – God knows every little detail about us. How many hairs we have have on our head, our fears, our hopes , our talents, our future. Everything. Sometimes we may not know those details about ourselves, but God knows. The lesson of Psalm 139 is that God is all powerful, God is all knowing, God is also all present – omnipresent. At the beginning of the serving line in front of the apples at a church picnic, an adult had written a big sign that said: "God is watching, take only one." Well, at the end of the line, next to the chocolate chip cookies, a little boy had written a little sign that said: "Take as many as you want, God is busy watching the apples." The truth is, God is busy watching everyone and everything. I heard about a skeptic who was trying to persuade a little boy that there was no God. He said, "Son, you show me where God is, and I will give you an apple." The little boy replied, "Mister, you show me where God is not, and I'll give you a whole box of apples." In his presence, God is omnipresent. The good news for us according to psalm 139 is that there is nothing that we can go through in life or death that God is not there for us – to support us. One day while out for a walk, he came to a beautiful estate. He saw a little girl (about five or six years old) come running out an iron gate. She closed the gate behind her. Suddenly, she realized that she had locked herself out. She began to cry and beat on the gate hysterically. Quickly, her mother came running to the little girl. She opened the gate, took the little girl in her arms, carried her back inside and comforted her saying, “Everything is all right, honey. You know I wouldn’t leave you out here all alone. You know how much I love you. You knew I would come, didn’t you?” As Rufus Jones saw that young mother coming to rescue her daughter, he remembered that God is like that… and that no matter what the situation is… even at the place of death, “He is there for us”… and Rufus Jones said: “In that moment, I saw with my spirit that there was love behind my shut gate also.” God is there to support us, to lead us, but most importantly to invite us to the knitting circle. No matter who we are – man or woman, whether we know how to knit or not – God still wants us to be a part of the knitting circle. Each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made – Saint Augustine once said, "People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars—and they pass by themselves without wondering."1 More wondrous than the stars that twinkle, the sun that shines, the moon that glows, the lightning that strikes, the thunder that roars, the snow that falls, or the ice that freezes, is what you can see in the mirror. This is a wonderful day – as we celebrate the love of God in the life of these five young men – excited about what God does in their lives, and what they do for our community as they grow together. As they are reminded that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Made to make a difference in the world. With an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God on their side. They have been invited to join the knitters circle. Each of us have been invited to that sacred circle – God can knit, so can we. A friend recently told me about a popular pastime among some of the young women who attend her daughter’s college. Experienced knitters, they will go to a thrift store and look for a sweater that is past its prime and unravel the yarn to make something new. The practice is known as “frogging,” from the words “rip it, rip it.” In the process, something old and shopworn sees new life in unexpected forms. I thought of frogging when I recently reread Psalm 139, that beautiful paean to the intricate ways in which God has fashioned the human form. The Psalm contains one of my favorite Bible verses: “For you yourself created my inmost parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” It’s always nice to find a proof-text that nicely fits your life, and so I enjoy the fact that here, beyond any doubt, we have conclusive proof that God is a knitter. Now there’s a verse that makes knitters like me happy. Let us all take our place in the knitters circle – the church. Let us pray……Amen. Additional illustrations. Her name is Pascale. She is five years old. She is a very important part of our church family. She is here in the 8:30 service most every Sunday morning. One evening recently, Pascale was watching television with her mom and dad. Suddenly, a news flash showed President Bush walking to a meeting. The President was surrounded by a group of men in dark suits. Pascale asked her parents: “Who are those men with the President? Why are they with him?” Her parents answered: “They are members of the secret service. They go with the President everywhere he goes. They travel with him always. They protect him and take care of him and keep him safe at all times.” And Pascale said: “That’s what Jesus does for me!” Read more at https://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/2006/01/the-god-who-knits.aspx#Xx4Z3QMhd0gsFUhP.99

Worship the God you Know

Acts 17:22-34 Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A Worship the God you Know What is Memorial Day It is Memorial Day Weekend, and that can mean a lot of different things. It can mean a long weekend, cook outs, parades. Maybe it is just me, but it seems that the retailers have discovered a new holiday. Memorial Day has always meant sales, but this year I have noticed that every other email that I have gotten this weekend, and every other commercial on tv is an advertisement for someone one’s special sale. Memorial day is the first unofficial day of the summer. For us in the black community, that is a scary thing. It means that it is about to get hot, and that tempers are about to rise. Who knows what the summer will bring. We have to pray. In the midst of all that we have made Memorial Day to mean, let us not forget that there is a real meaning for the day. It is to remember our servicemen who have passed on, in order to preserve our ability to have fun, and our ability to be free. It was actually the black community that first celebrated Memorial Day. They would lay wreaths on the graves of soldiers, whether they were in the union army or the confederate army. From there is seemed to catch on to other communities. It is important for us to remember that we did not get where we are alone. We are here because of the sacrifice of others. In order to remember, we often build memorials, or monuments, or even buildings. So it is fitting that our scripture is about a monument. A monument to an unknown God. Mars Hill A few years ago, I took a trip following in the footsteps of Paul. The trip started in Athens, and the first place that we visited was Mars Hill. I remember there were monuments to different Gods everywhere. And we stood at the monument that Paul stood, dedicated to an unknown God. Legend has it that the city of Athens was in danger, so they set a bunch of sheep to roam around, and they sacrificed them wherever they were. They build monuments where the sheep fell and worshipped the God near that sheep. They noticed that one sheep was laying near a place with no monument, so they built one to an unknown God. Paul was in town trying to tell gentiles about Jesus. He wanted them to become Christians. So he appealed to what he already saw – that they were religious. They were obviously in search for God – but did not know Who God was. Paul wanted them to know. God is the creater. God is the maker, not the made. A monument is not enough to explain who God is. The point of Acts 17 As a matter of fact, Paul reminds us that we live in God, God does not live in us. Our being is dependent on God. God is a judge. As long as we don’t know, things are okay. But once we know God we have to obey God. God is a savior – who saves us through the sacrifice of his son Jesus. The point of the book of Acts The book of Acts is a book of the first sermons about the power of Jesus Christ. Each disciples went our into the world to tell gentiles what they saw in the miracle of Christ. Each disciples depended on the power of the holy spirit in order to change hearts. Paul is talking. Telling his story. After telling his story, most people sneered, some wanted to hear more, only two were willing to give their life to Christ. Most wanted to rely on their own understanding. They were not willing to change. There is a story about Richard J. Daly. We Need Help Some of you are old enough to remember Richard Daly who was mayor of Chicago for 21 years (1955-1976). Mayor Daly was known as a rather forbidding guy to work for. One story goes like this. One of Mayor Daly’s speech writers came in and demanded a raise. Mayor Daly responded as could be expected. He said “I’m not going to give you a raise. You are getting paid more than enough already. It should be enough for you that you are working for a great American hero like myself.” And that was the end of it...or so the mayor thought. Two weeks later Mayor Daly was on his way to give a speech to a convention of veterans. The speech was going to receive nationwide attention. Now one other thing Mayor Daly was famous for was not reading his speeches until he got up to deliver them. So there he stood before a vast throng of veterans and nationwide press coverage. He began to describe the plight of the veterans. “I’m concerned for you. I have a heart for you. I am deeply convinced that this country needs to take care of its veterans. So, today I am proposing a seventeen point plan that includes the city, state and federal government, to care for the veterans of this country.” Now by this time everyone, including Mayor Daly, was on the edge of their seat to hear what the proposal was. He turned the page and saw only these words: “You’re on your own now, you great American hero.” I don't know if Daly learned anything at that moment. With his great ego perhaps he did not. But he should have learned that all of us, no matter how great we think we are, need help. We need advocates who work behind the scenes to make us who we are. God has an advocate for you. He is the Holy Spirit. Story of Daly taken from: Journey Toward God, New Community Small Group study on Exodus (Zondervan), p.33. Brett Blair,www.eSermons.com Sometimes when I think of a monument to an unknown God, I think of the church. Because there are still so many people outside of the church who don’t know God, and don’t know what they are missing by not coming inside of the church. The book of Acts was written to give us hope. To help us to remember that the power of God is not in us, but in the holy spirit. We just have to be willing to be used by the spirit. Acts has a very important message for those who call themselves Christians. Being a Christian is more than just feeling good, smiling and being nice. It is more than having peace of mind, givng and going to church. It is worshipping God in Jesus Christ. It is about remembering that our whole being is inside of God. Without the spirit of God in us, we are absolutely nothing. But the good news is that when we look for God, God is very near by. He is always with us. He always helps us. Always Alongside Us A student named Steve Winger from Lubbock, TX was taking a challenging class in Logic. The course and teacher were known for exacting and demanding exams. The final exam was looming, and the professor mercifully told the class that each student would be permitted to bring in a single 8 x 11 ½ inch sheet with as much information as they could put on that one sheet for help during the test. On exam day, each student came to class clutching their precious pieces of paper with as much information as possible. Some students had crammed lines and lines of font so tiny and so numerous onto that single sheet that you had to wonder how they could read it. But Steve walked in with a single blank sheet and a friend who was a senior student and who had an ‘A’ in logic. Steve bent down and placed that single, blank sheet of paper on the floor next to his desk. His expert friend stood on the paper. The professor noticed the extra body in the room and asked what he was doing. Steve piped up, “You said we could bring in whatever we could fit on a single piece of paper for help on this test, well, this is my help and he can fit on the paper!” He had followed the instructions to the letter and was the only student in that class to score an ‘A’ since he had his expert friend standing alongside him. The Holy Spirit is like that friend, standing alongside us, supporting us, and guiding us. Adapted from an unknown source, Staff, www.Sermons.com The message of all of Acts for us is that the spirit is promised to those who live in God, the spirit is knowable in the risen Christ, the spirit makes a difference in our lives. Paul reminds us that our life does not have to be a monument to an unknown God. We have to know that God is present in the resurrected Christ. If we remember that, the spirit will do the rest. I want to end as I started, with a story about memorial day. An anonymous e-mail tells a story we need to hear on this Memorial Day weekend. It’s about an old man and his wife sitting in the parking lot of a supermarket. The hood is up on their car. Evidently they are having engine problems. A young man in his early twenties with a grocery bag in his arm walks in the direction of the elderly couple. The old gentleman emerges from the car and takes a few steps in the young man’s direction. He points to the open hood and asks the young man for assistance. The young man puts his grocery bag into his expensive SUV, turns back to the old man and yells at him: “You shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a car at your age.” And then with a wave of his hand, he gets into his car and speeds out of the parking lot. The old gentleman pulls out his handkerchief, mops his brow and goes back to his car. Again he looks at the engine. He then goes to his wife and appears to reassure her that things will be okay. A stranger approaches the old man. “Looks like you’re having a problem,” he says. The old man smiles sheepishly, and quietly nods his head. The stranger looks under the hood of the car, but he has no more expertise with automobile engines than the old man. He assures the elderly gentleman he will return and heads to a nearby service station. He explains the situation to a mechanic and says he will pay him if he would help the elderly couple with their car. Returning with the mechanic, the stranger gets into a conversation with the old gentleman. The stranger is wearing a ring signifying that he had been a Marine. Coincidentally, so had the old man. He confides that he had served in some of the harshest battles in our nation’s history, including Guadalcanal and Okinawa. He had retired from the Marine Corps after the war. After the car was repaired and running, the old gentleman handed a card to the stranger and they shook hands and parted. A little while later the stranger happened to look at the card. The name of the old gentleman was on the card in golden leaf and under his name was written: Congressional Medal of Honor Society. It was only then that the former Marine realized that he had come to the aid of one of America’s heroes. Just a reminder this Memorial Day weekend that there are men and women who have served their country, and received very little in return. It is only right that we recognize their sacrifice and honor their memory this holiday weekend. As we remember the sacrifice of those unnamed men and women – let us remember the sacrifice of Jesus crist for our sins. So that we can have life and have it abundantly. Amen. Children’s Sermon WHAT IS GOD MADE OF? by Wesley T. Runk Passage: Acts 17:16-34 • Lectionary: Easter 6 Item 26 of 36 | Back to Results Objects: A statue in marble or bronze, a painting of some classical origin depicting God or a likeness of Him, and then maybe a rock, leaf or wood carving. A four leaf clover or a lucky penny Good morning (evening) to you boys and girls and how are you on this beautiful day? This is our third time together and so that means that we get to talk about one of the questions that you have wondered about so often. Remember we have already asked where God is, and how old is God? Today we have an especially difficult question for you and for everybody. We want to know what God is made of, and that is especially hard since no one has ever felt God. For instance if I could tell you that God felt like steel or fur or mud you would know what kind of material God is made of. A long time ago, boys and girls, people thought that their God's were made of things like this statue I have here. Do you know what I mean'? People thought that this statue was a god and they put the statue on a shelf and everybody thought that their house was protected from any kind of evil spirits. This statue is made of marble. Other people liked to think their god was made in the form of a painting and they had a great artist paint them a copy so that everyone would picture god in the same way. A real long time ago, boys and girls, there were people who believed that their god lived in a rock like this or in a tree or in a very fast running river. That's what people used to think. Today some people have other kinds of gods, although they don't call them gods. Some people have to have something that they can feel. Let me show you what I mean. Have you ever seen someone carry one of these? (Hold up a four leaf clover or a rabbit's foot). What is it? That's right, a rabbit's foot. People think if they rub that rabbit's foot nothing will happen to them and that everything will be all right. They trust the rabbit foot, or a four leaf clover. Or some people I know carry a lucky penny in their pocket and rub it whenever they need something to happen. People like to feel their god and know what He is made of, but our God tells us that He is a spirit, something that you cannot even see, or touch or smell or feel. He is different than anything else that we know. And that is one of the reasons that He is God. There is nothing else like him in the whole world. He does not like us to make other things and call them god and when people trust in pennies or rocks or gold or anything else, then God gets very angry. What is a Spirit? That is a good question. You know that He is near and He speaks to you in prayer but you can't reach out and touch Him, nor can you hear Him. Do you remember what it's like when you go to school or away from home and you get lonely and wish that your mother was very near but you can't go and find her? When you think about her you get very warm and just thinking makes you feel better all over. Well in a way that is a spirit because even though you can't feel or see or hear or taste her you still know that she loves you and will be there when you get home. God is a spirit and while we don't know what He is made of we do know that the Bible teaches that He is not made of anything like rocks, or pennies. God is a spirit. Questions Children Ask About God, Wesley T. Runk, CSS Publishing Co., Inc., 1971, 0-89536-199-X Back to Results | Item 26 of 36 Other illustrations not used…… I’ve purchased a town lot in heaven On the city not built with hand, I’m sending material daily To build in that happy land. I’d like a mansion on Main Street, Where streets are all paved with gold. With a clear view of the pearly gates Where Christ takes care of the soul. I want to send good material That will stand the test of time, So I’ll not be disappointed When I reach that home sublime. Prayer is for the foundation, Faith and love for the walls, Good deeds for the reinforcement, That will stand when the Saviour calls. I would like you for my neighbor In that city so divine— Maybe just across the street Or your home close to mine. Up there we will know no sorrow, Tears will never dim the eyes. There we will rest in peace forever In that happy home on high. So my friends, start to building Your home beyond the sky Where we can all be together In the sweet by and by. —Author Unknown In the nineteenth century people who passed the Rothschild mansion in the fashionable quarter of London noticed that the end of one of the cornices was unfinished. The question may be asked: Could not the richest man in the world afford to pay for that cornice, or was the lack due to carelessness? The explanation is a very simple yet suggestive one when it is known. Lord Rothschild was an orthodox Jew, and every pious Jew’s house, tradition says, must have some part unfinished, to bear testimony to the world that its occupant is only, like Abraham, a pilgrim and a stranger upon the earth. —Selected Acts 17:22-31 -- Good and Bad “Magical Thinking” – by Leonard Sweet We live in an age where incredible scientific advancements take place everyday. Take GRIN, the acronym for (G) genetic engineering, (R) robotics, (I) information technology and (N) nanotechnology. The human genome has been mapped. Nanotechnology is constructing miniscule machines that can deliver inter-cellular messages or make molecular level repairs. Astrophysicists have mapped the curvature of the universe, delved into black holes, listened to the echoes of the Big Bang. Scientific inquiry and experiment have revealed the “hows” and “whys” and “whats” never before known. We think we’re so smart. We think we have a handle on how the universe works. So why did the builders of the new Yankee Stadium spend five hours and $50,000 digging through two feet of concrete last week? They did this to extract a David Ortiz Red Sox jersey that had been secretly buried in the concrete floor of the visiting team’s dug out. A construction worker, an unrepentant Red Sox fan, had slipped the jersey into the concrete in order to permanently “jinx” the new Yankee stadium. The story of the jersey finally came to light because another construction worker who had seen the shirt go into the slab got worried and confessed: “I don’t want to be responsible for sinking the franchise,” he said. The stadium, a 1.3 billion dollar project, was brought to a screeching halt; the glowing new future for the Yankees was endangered; immediate, expensive action was taken: why? Because everyone believed in the jinxing power of a piece of cloth submerged down in a concrete floor in a locker room. That was one high-powered hex! Or not. No one can completely escape what has been called “magical thinking” (see Matthew Hutson, “Magical Thinking,” Psychology Today, March-April 2008, 90-95. The subtitle is “Even Hard-Core Skeptics Can’t Help But Find Sympathy in the Fabric of the Universe----And Occasionally Try to Pull Its String”). We “knock on wood,” throw spilled salt over our shoulders, can’t resist reading our horoscopes, always take notice of a “Friday the 13th.” Or if you think you’re immune to “magical thinking,” answer me this: how many of you here this morning wouldn’t think twice about wearing the jacket of a murderer? Little children have that special “blankie” or stuffed animal that magically imparts peace and serenity. But big corporations hire specialists to organize the “feng shui” in their work spaces. Musician George Michael bought the Steinway piano that John Lennon composed his best know work on: “Imagine.” Michael ships this piano off to places that are in need of some kind of spiritual support: to New Orleans after Katrina; to Virginia Tech after the shootings. The piano is put on public display, with its pedigree, open for any and all to sit down and plunk out a few notes, to seek out a bit of solace in its noteworthy presence. No matter how much scientific knowledge we acquire about the world we live in, physical reality is never enough. The human spirit knows there is always more to be revealed, that there is something more out there if we could only lift the veil. Paul’s speech to the Athenians gathered at the elite Court of the Areopagus was designed to get his audience thinking about that inner yearning for “something more,” that “groping” for the “unknown God.” But Paul also warned them that there was a difference between religiosity and righteousness. The God who created the universe, who gave life to human beings, “does not live in shrines made by human hands” (v.24) and is not “an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals” (v.29). Idols of gold, silver, or stone will never contain God, and can never move beyond the “magical” to real faithfulness… _______________________ Service Is Our Highest Honor It is Memorial Day weekend. More than a weekend to frolic in the sun and picnic on the grounds, Memorial Day is a day to remember. Remember we have been bought with a price. Thousands of people have died that you and I might live in the freedom that we regularly take for granted. In World War II alone 406,000 Americans gave their lives. We are bought with a price. So let us not reduce freedom to licentiousness nor rights to unrestraint. Remember there is a reason to be born save to consume the corn, eat the fish and leave behind a dirty dish. Not selfishness, but service is our highest honor. J. Howard Olds, Faith Breaks,www.Sermons.com

God knows you better than you know yourself

September 8, 2013 Jeremiah 18:1-11 Psalm 139: 1-6; 13-18 Year C 16th Sunday of Pentecost God knows you better than you know yourself Are you a salmon or a jellyfish? ((This jellyfsh and salmon illustration was borrowed from another Sermon Central contributor, Joel Smith) This will sound like a strange question to start off with, but let me ask you: Are you more like a salmon or a jellyfish? Okay maybe you don’t know much about them. I’ll describe each one and then you can decide. Salmon begin their lives in the fresh water rivers of the frigid Northwest. Not long after they’re born they begin a long swim down stream. Their destination is the ocean. It is here that they spend the majority of their adult lives. Then something strange happens. Scientists don’t even understand how, but at some point the adult salmon begins to swim back home. Though they may have swum thousands of miles from that original river location they head back home. That’s right! They swim upstream, against the current of the river. You’ve probably seen nature programs on TV that show them leaping out of the water to overcome waterfalls and other barriers impeding their progress. They face predators like bears and people. Incredibly, though they’ve been gone for years many of them return to the exact spot where they were born. I saw a documentary on one determined salmon that even swam through a maze of pipes and nudged open a grate to re-enter the hatchery where it was born. After an incredible effort the fish spawn and then does it and how He chooses to do it. God’s will is a way beyond our understanding, yet it is a way in which we are called to think and live. die. The new salmon are soon born and repeat the process. Does that describe you? Does your life have a destination? Are you going in a specific direction and are you willing to face all the obstacles to get there? If so, you’re like the salmon. Then there’s the jellyfish. There are numerous species of these yucky-looking little creatures. Some of them are tiny. Others have tentacles that can be measured in feet. Jellyfish are born in the ocean and die there too. They have limited movement, but never really use that ability to go in any particular destination. They’re moved along primary by the wind and waves and tides. They drift about stinging and surviving. Occasionally one will wash up on the beach and, if you’re not careful, you’ll step on it and mess up your vacation. circumstances or other people’s plans, but you really have no particular destination of your own. The difference between salmon and jellyfish is the same as the difference between people. Some have a direction. Most just drift. Which one are you? A salmon or a jellyfish? Someone who lives out your call or someone who just goes along with what is going on? The world expects us to be jellyfish It is not as easy as you think to live a life being called my God. As a matter of fact, the world encourages us all to be jellyfish. To wallow on our desires, abilities. Freedom means doing what we want and depending on ourselves for everything. A sense of call in our time is profoundly counter cultural.. the ideology of our time is that we can live an uncalled life, one not referred to any purpose beyond one’s self. Walter Bruggeman A man on tin roof prays for salvation until… A man was fixing his roof, a tin roof that had nothing to hold onto. He made a wrong move and started to fall off of the roof. And of course he called out to God to save him, until his pants got caught on a nail, and he was saved. He called out never mind God, I got it, I saved myself. Never even realizing that God can provide the nail, it was not just a coincidence. But that is how the world wants us to think- things just happen, they have nothing to do with God’s will. And unfortunately, the church does not make it any better. When we talk about being called, we save that term just for clergy. We think that there are special requirements to being called. Being called is something that applies to certain people. Bing called means living a life in the presence of God. It means living faithfully according to your relationship with God. God is present with everybody in the church, everybody has a calling, a meaning, a purpose. Martin Luther was one of the first to rediscover the ancient, biblical doctrine of vocation. The medieval world drew a sharp boundary between the sacred and the secular, but Luther said no, it isn’t meant to be that way. It isn’t just priest and monks, and nuns who have a vocation, but every Christian. Curiuosly, Luther uses the word vocation more often in his writing to refer to things like marriage, and familu then it does to paid employment. Vocation to him has to do with all of life, with it living it faithfully. We can have a calling to do anything, so long as it glorifies God. 1. 3446 “We Are Everywhere” 2. The growth of Christianity in the early centuries was phenomenal. By mid 2nd-century, an apologist said, “We are everywhere. We are in your towns and in your cities; we are in your army and navy; we are in your palaces; we are in the senate; we are more numerous than anyone.” 3. By AD 300, the church was spreading so fast that it appeared the entire civilized world could be evangelized by AD 500. 4. But Constantine decreed that every one in the empire was already Christian. And slowly the idea prevailed of a division between laity and clergy, for pagans could not evangelize nor did they know how. And Christianity’s movement was checked. When we started to put the presence of God in the church and not in our lives, we changed to definition of what it meant to work for God. More importantly we forgot that God is everywhere, in everything and in everyperson. It is like the young boy who was moving from Kansas to Minnesota. On the night before he moved, he prayed – God when we move we are going to miss you, but we will always remember what you have done for us while we were here. Not realizing that God was in Minnesota, long before he was. God is in Kansas and Minnesota at the same time. God is omnipotent and everywhere. Psalm 139 – reminds us that God is everywhere – where can I go that your presence is not already there?- nowhere because God is everywhere. It also reminds us that God knows everything. But more importantly, God knows you, God knows your purpose. in Psalm 139:1-6 You Examin You Know You Know You See You Know You Know You Go You Place 5. God Examins Your Heart Psalm 139:1 A. What is it to examin? B. What will God Find in Your Heart? 6. God Knows You Psalm 139:2 A. Your Actions B. Your Thoughts C. Your Words 7. God Sees Psalm 139:3 A. Your Travels B. Your Rest 8. God Goes Psalm 139:5 A. Before You B. Behind You 9. God Places Psalm 139:5 A. His Hand on You B. His Blessing My favorite verse in psalm 139 is that I am wonderfully and fearfully made. That is a reminder of God’s love for us. In a world that would like to tell us that we are uncalled. That we are unworthy of God’s service. That what we do is nothing special, and that work that we do is not sacred. There's a Great One Inside You During a practice session for the Green Bay Packers, things were not going well for Vince Lombardi’s team. Lombardi singled out one big guard for his failure to "put out." It was a hot, muggy day when the coach called his guard aside and leveled his awesome vocal guns on him, as only Lombardi could. "Son, you are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking, you’re not tackling, you’re not putting out. As a matter of fact, it’s all over for you today, go take a shower." The big guard dropped his head and walked into the dressing room. Forty- five minutes later, when Lombardi walked in, he saw the big guard sitting in front of his locker still wearing his uniform. His head was bowed and he was sobbing quietly. Vince Lombardi, ever the changeable but always the compassionate warrior, did something of an about face that was also typical of him. He walked over to his football player and put his arms around his shoulder. "Son," he said, "I told you the truth. You are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking, you’re not tackling, you’re not putting out. However, in all fairness to you, I should have finished the story. Inside of you, son, there is a great football player, and I’m going to stick by your side until the great football player inside of you has a chance to come out and assert himself." With these words, Jerry Kramer straightened up and felt a great deal better. As a matter of fact, he felt so much better he went on to become one of the all-time greats in football and was recently voted the all-time guard in the first 50 years of professional football. God often uses the least gifted people when some great service is neede. Because people who know their own weakness are fully open to the power that God offers God uses the least likely. A practical application of this is right here in the church. We are all gifted, we all have something that we can give to help the church, and there is a place in the structure of the church for us to be a part. When we see people participating, and helping, I think that we still place a value on that person, and what church they are from. It is not that individual who is doing a certain job, but a representative. As God is reshaping us, remolding us into a new church with a new mission, it is important for us to remember that we all have gifts, and the church is the place for us to explore and grow in those gifts. And it is our job as church members to honor the gifts of all people. We wouldn’t be here, if God was not using us. It is our collective gifts that do the work of the church. That is the message of Jeremiah – as God called him to go into the potter’s house. God often does not speak in words, but in images. Jeremiah saw that his nation was being remolded and reshaped for a new time and a new mission. God did not give up on them for their sins, God took the time to give them a new life. But many of us don’t want to be touched by God, we don’t want to be reshaped. And yet God sees the best in us, and prepares us for our destiny. I thought this poem said it best….. Written by Irenaues from the 2nd Century. From God’s Hands It is not you who shape God; it is God that shapes you. If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the Artist who does all things in due season. Offer the Potter your heart, soft and tractable, and keep the form in which the Artist has fashioned you. Let your clay be moist, lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of the Potter’s fingers. He is the potter; we are the clay. He is the shepherd; we are the sheep. He is the Master; we are the servant. No matter how educated we are, no matter how much power and influence we may think we possess, no matter how long we have walked w/ Him, no matter how significant we may imagine ourselves to be in His plans, none of that qualifies us to grasp why He does what He does when He God takes our sin and turns it into service, God takes our weakness and uses it as a strength. God takes what is least, and makes it into the most important. God calls clergy, but God calls laity also. Remember when 5000 people on the beach needed to be fed. Jesus asked his disciples to feed them, but they were too stuck in their doubts and what makes sense with the world that they couldn’t do it. God used a little boy with 5 loaves and 5 fishes. When God needed someone to take care of his son as he came into the world – he didn’t send an angel to an older woman, but to a young girl. A young girl who willingly accepted his word, that she would be the mother of Jesus. She didn’t think about the consequences, she just accepted God’s word for her. We all have value in God, God knows us, God knows what we are capable of, God knows what we have trouble with, he knows what we cant do. And he uses all of that to shape us into a faithful servant, who can answer God’s call. It is in our willingness, our obedience, that we respond to God’s touch. Amen. Whither shall I go from Thy Presence? From thee is there some hiding place? The deed is a thing so private, so inside the prefect working of desire that its inward part seems known to me, to me alone. The ebb and flow of thoughts within my hidden sea, the forms that stir within the channels of my mind, keep tryst with all my hidden hopes and fears. The ties that hold me fast to those whose life with mine makes one, The tangled twine that binds my life with things I claim as mine, are held in place by folds of my embrace. The sealed stillness that walls around the heartaches and the pain, is held against all else that would invade. Awe-filled contrition emptied clear of violence and sin, seeps slowly from the wilderness of my deserted soul. Almighty joy mounts to the brim and overflows in wild array, with music only ears attuned can hear. And yet, always I know that another sees and understands every vigil with me keeps watch. The door through which He comes no man can shut, He is the Door! I cannot go from Thy Presence, there is no hiding place from Thee.