Sermon: God's Work Our Hands Sunday (Sept. 8, 2013)

Today the ELCA has urged congregations to celebrate the denomination's 25th anniversary by having "God's Work, Our Hands Sunday," a day in which congregations go out and do some service project together. We couldn't pull it together soon enough to have such a project, but we did invite people to commit to a new ministry this year. This sermon was meant to set that up. I'll be eager to see how all these options pan out! We had these ministries outlined:

* Paint the exterior of the church, a job that desperately needs doing, especially since it is people's first impression of the church.
* Join "Barnabas Ministry," a new, care-taking ministry that sends cards, visits shut-ins, brings meals to people going through tough times, stuff like that.
* Become a driver for "WASP," a program that drives elderly people in the community to their doctor's appointments.
* Clean tables at a few nearby parks, which are covered in various debris, and so can't currently be used by people.
* Knit scarves and hats for needy kids in the area, which will be put in stockings for our stocking project we do at Christmas. (I know of one seven-year-old who wants to learn to knit, and was totally stoked to sign up for this one!)

Okay, here's the sermon:

Pentecost 16C
Sept. 8, 2013 (Rally Day)

Luke 14:25-33

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

         When Rally Day comes along, a pastor always hopes for a very upbeat and inspiring text to preach on. This is a day where the attendance is usually higher, people have stopped traveling for the summer and are back in church, and everyone is gearing up to start Sunday School and perhaps some new ministries. So in her dreams, the pastor then preaches a dynamic and touching sermon that makes everyone say, “I’m so glad we went to church today – let’s never miss another Sunday!”

         Instead, the lectionary – the schedule of readings for the year – offers us this challenging text from Luke, with all this business of hating father and mother, sisters and brothers. This is not the sort of text that rallies the crowds and encourages them to come back for more! And it isn’t just that it doesn’t jibe with what we’d like to think are good, Christian family values. It’s deeper than that. This text puts us face to face with the immense cost of discipleship. In other words, this, friends, is what it takes to be a Christian: “hating” your family, giving up all your possessions, and following Jesus. Count the cost folks, says Jesus, and be sure you know what you are getting into, because I’m not kidding.

         Please – don’t get up and walk out just yet! At first blush, I know, it’s all pretty extreme. But on the other hand, maybe this isn’t so out of the realm of possibility. First of all, regarding the particular language Jesus uses, let’s be clear that Jesus is using a linguistic device, and one we are all familiar with: hyperbole. Exaggeration. We all do it. How many of you have ever said, “I’m starving!” And yet, you are all here, looking very well nourished. Or, “I am so embarrassed, I could die.” Death by embarrassment, huh? You know, I’ve never actually seen that. You see, we say things hyperbolically for effect. To take them literally is actually to make them less true, but to understand such statements as figures of speech just better hits home the point we are trying to make.

         And that’s what Jesus is doing. You must “hate” father and mother, sister and brother, he says. To take that literally is not in keeping with Jesus’ other, more prevalent teachings to love one another, even to love our enemies. So what does he mean, then? Well, what is Jesus’ primary interest, what he speaks about more than anything else? Any guesses? … It is the Kingdom of God. And because bringing the Kingdom of God to God’s people is his primary interest, nothing must come before it, for him or his followers. In other words, everything else in our lives that would take our attention away from that purpose must be put aside or lowered in priority – including our family, our jobs, and all our possessions. We don’t have to hate those things; we just mustn’t let them take priority over seeking the Kingdom of God and its righteousness here on earth.

         How do we make the Kingdom of God our first priority? Well, first we need to know what that means. When I say “kingdom of God,” what are some images or ideals that come to your mind? …

         If that ideal is our priority, is there a role that we can play in that? What is required from us, if we are to make the kingdom of God our priority? …

         Pretty much any way you cut it, it requires some sacrifice on our part, and that’s what Jesus is getting at in our Gospel today. Sometimes the gains of that sacrifice outweigh the costs, and sometimes not. That’s what makes this so hard. Jesus suggests that the sacrifices we make for the sake of the gospel might include people or things that are dear to us, and that could very well be true. It could also be that we sacrifice a part of our familiar way of life, or our time, or our treasures.

That word, sacrifice, is hard for us to deal with, isn’t it, and I think it’s because having to make sacrifices is just too familiar to us. Our lives are full of decisions where we have to sacrifice one beloved thing for another – we sacrifice independence for marriage, alone time and freedom for children, time with that family to work more hours and live a comfortable life. Maybe you are deliberating about just such a sacrifice right now, trying to weigh the costs and the gains for your life. 

We all deal with sacrifice on a regular basis. The question Jesus poses for us today is: will following him be one of the sacrifices you consider, or will you RSVP to his invitation to follow with a, “I would, sounds like fun, but I am too busy with all my other commitments”?

You know, a lot of the Christian faith is about thinking and believing. Many Christians would even say that you have to believe a certain way to go to heaven, or even to call yourself a Christian. And well, to some extent that is true – there are some basic beliefs that constitute Christianity, and if you don’t already, I hope that at some point you will believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that God sent him to the world to show us God’s love, and that he died on a cross and rose from the dead in order to forgive sins and bring us into eternal life, and that in baptism you were claimed as a child of God, and that God will never ever let you go or stop loving you. These are all beliefs to stake our lives on, beliefs that have been basic and essential in the Church for centuries.

But that is not the end-all of the Christian faith, and simply believing those things is not the way to live life as a disciple of Christ. Faith is not merely thinking – it is also doing. And that is where some of the sacrifice comes in. Let me be clear: you are already claimed, loved, and forgiven by God, and nothing you do or don’t do will ever change that. Jesus took care of the salvation piece already. But also a part of the Christian life is that, when you know what God has done for you, when you really do believe this stuff, you will in gratitude also be compelled toward serving others. Liberated by God’s grace, and grateful for God’s sacrifice for us, we are moved toward service; and hence, works of love, works of God, spring spontaneously from us. God acts, and we respond.

And so we become God’s hands in the world: because God’s work in us and for us has inspired us to use our hands for works of love. And this is the sort of discipleship that we lift up and celebrate today. This church is a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCA, and the ELCA has dubbed this day, “God’s Work, Our Hands Sunday.” Thousands of congregations will be sent out today to spread God’s love by works of service: cleaning up neighborhoods, visiting people, providing for those in need, and in doing this, they will not only believe a faith, holding a believe, they will also live a faith. It does require sacrifice, but as with so many sacrifices, the gains are so much greater.

So today, you have an opportunity to engage in and commit to this sort of sacrificial love. In your bulletin, you will find two inserts – a description of some ministries, and a commitment card. I’d like to invite you to read over these descriptions and be prepared to discuss them with someone sitting near you. And then I invite and encourage you to pull out that commitment card, and commit to one (or more!) of those ministries. Put your name and a way to contact you on the card as well, and someone will be in touch about the details and when it is going to happen. If you have another ministry in mind, you can jot that one down, too, but I do encourage you that whatever the ministry is that you choose to engage in, you do it with someone, because part of living this abundant life of faith is doing it together, in fellowship with the body of Christ. When you have filled out your card, hold onto it and put it in the offering plate later as your offering of sacrificial, kingdom-seeking service to God.

Now, I invite you into discussion and discernment with those sitting near you, discussing how you see each of these ministries as an opportunity to live your faith, and also what you might have to sacrifice to participate in that ministry.

(After a time of discussion…)

Let us pray… Gracious God, you give us life and you give it abundantly. Inspire us to seek your kingdom by using that life to give to others. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.