Stone Soup: Generosity in Community Part 2 - This Soup Needs Some Service
Some days, it snows. And still our hearts long for community, for Word, for praise.
Joshua 22:5
Romans 12: 9 - 13
(NRSV)
Lord, open our ears and hearts, minds and hands today to receive the Word, fresh and for this time. Amen.
You’ve heard me share the experience before – some weeks the
sermon walks onto the page. Some weeks
it arrives in fits and starts. Some
weeks I am clearly headed in a direction and God steps in. Sometimes God steps in on Saturday morning
and takes me 90, 145, 180 degrees from where I have been headed.
Let’s just say I spent Saturday rethinking a lot of things.
This month, we’re talking about the story Stone Soup – a
folktale about a hungry stranger entering into a town. In the story, ordinary
water in a pot with a stone and an open fire becomes nourishing and tasty
because people share from what they have.
Even though they aren’t too keen on this stranger at first. Even though they are not quite ready to open
their door…something about the pot and the idea beckons to them and they come
with what they have to offer.
And we’re talking about the things that we commit to as members of this church – supporting the mission of the church, which is ultimately to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world - with our prayers and presence, our service, our financial gifts and our witness (testimony). These are our membership vows.
But I want to talk less today about being a member – because sometimes that feels more like a club of some sort – a place where some are in and some are not - and instead talk more about being a disciple of Jesus.
Not one of the twelve.
No…their history has been recorded for us to revisit in Scripture. Today and for the rest of this month…actually
for the rest of this year…we’re talking about whether or not we are taking on
the role of disciple in each of our own lives….and in our collective lives as
the church, the body of Christ.
Discipleship is a commitment we make. That commitment can be a point in time, but
really, it is a commitment that we revisit every single day. Today, will I follow Jesus? What about today? What about in this
moment? What about in this particular
choice, life decision, moment? Is my commitment evidenced by the choice I am
making at each turn.
The word disciple can be translated to mean “student,” or
one who follows a particular teacher, or one who receives a way of thinking and
shares it intentionally with others, representing the original teacher.
And so we are called to be followers of a way, a way that
Jesus lived and taught. And by following
that way, we become more like Jesus, closer to God, we bring the Kingdom of God
just a little closer to the earth.
Instead of waiting for some big bang or some big event or some celebrity
to change our lives and our world, as disciples we know we have a role to play
in it all…our work, our choices, our commitment matters.
Each and every day.
I think it’s important, as we start this conversation that will last us a while, that you know something about how I understand the way God calls us to discipleship.
I do not understand being “saved” as a once and done event. That is not my experience of how God works. In
an early discernment conversation with folks who had the authority to move me
forward as a candidate for ministry, someone asked when I had been “saved.”
Well… you see…I don’t see it quite that way. I don’t have a one - time event…a time when
the earth shook and I turned and my life was forever headed another direction. Sure, there are moments when God has made
God’s-self known, making it very
apparent to me that I had a choice to make and the choice really was a matter
of eternal life … I know a lot of people who do have an event of “turning,” but
it really isn’t once and done.
One of the first occasions at which I spent time with my
future MIL was a family wedding. In my
husband’s family, his father and uncles are all pastors, and 80% of the male
cousins pastor or have pastored in some way.
So…a necessary part of any weekend family gathering is worship. We were in a circle of chairs outside of a
hotel ballroom early on Sunday morning.
My MIL leaned over and pointed at a gentleman in the circle and
whispered knowingly in my ear, “That’s Kevin, and he’s just recently been
SAVED.” She looked at me meaningfully
over the rims of her glasses. I leaned
over to my soon-to-be husband on the other side and said, “Saved from what?”
It’s a story we still laugh about…but if I don’t give you a
window into my understanding of God, it might seem a little disrespectful.
You see, discipleship is a path we choose to be on…time and
time again. It’s not a decision we make
in a moment and BAM…the rest is history and the future is defined with pearly
gates and a city on a hill…
Nope. We set our feet
on a path.
And the path has twists and turns. It has a million decision
points and recommitment points.
And we might pick a wrong fork in the road. Or we might
dawdle somewhere. We might get
stuck.
But we choose, time and time again, whether to keep putting
one foot in front of the other on the path of discipleship.
And as Methodists, (and if you are sitting in this room
today, I am including you, because you have found something in this place, a
Methodist place, that attracted you here or kept you hear) …as Methodists, we
have become part of a tradition that says we make these kinds of choices in our
lives day in and day out, with a commitment to getting better at them over
time. And with a commitment to learning
how we get better at them over time while walking alongside others. While asking one another how it is with our
souls. While working together to let our lives tell others the stories of how
Jesus has changed us…how following Jesus makes us something new every single
day.
All the while, God is there for us.
But we have to keep choosing God.
Because the world is tempting us with lots of other things.
One of the ways that we grow, one of the ways that we are
shaped, one of the ways that we are called, is through service. This is why, as
Methodists, we make a commitment in our vows to serve. John Wesley, as the founder of Methodism, understood
that we grew through scripture, and through helping others, and through
praying, and through worship, and through being in communities that helped us
do all of this better bit by bit each day.
Sometimes we get hung up on service as the way we prove that
we are good people. Or the ways that we
are trying to show God just how committed we really are. Or the ways we’re trying to work off the sins
or short-comings or shame of our past.
But I recommend we reconsider all of that.
Both of our scriptures today are calls to respond to God’s action
in our lives with some action of our own.
Both of these scriptures describe serving God as a way of loving
God. So…one of the things that our
commitment to service is about is responding to God’s love in our own life by
giving back acts of service in God’s name.
In the text from Hebrew scripture, the Israelites have
arrived in the promised land and Joshua is sending out the various tribes to
different regions. The commandment to
which he refers is not so much the tablets received by Moses as the command to
love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and might. And in the letter to the church at Rome, Paul
is encouraging the church, in light of Christ’s saving work, to give all of
themselves in love to God – including their service.
Let’s be clear – neither of these is so much about an
obligated response…but more like, God loves me so much and that is so amazing
to me that I just want to love other people like God loves me.
And it turns out, when I love other people, I generally
learn something about God and about myself along the way.
Perhaps the greatest example of this in Jesus’ own ministry
is in the upper room. He’s gathered with
his friends about to share a beautiful meal. But he washes their feet.
He washes their feet because he loves them so.
Because the greatest love he can offer is humble service.
This is a community that offers itself richly in service.
My prayer is that we are doing it as a response to the love
God has for us…not because we’re working out our demons, trying to craft our
path to heaven, trying to rid ourselves of some past life.
So returning to the stranger, wandering into the village…
This soup needs our service.
Because in serving we grow. We
become. We learn. We love. It’s a cycle for us…. Serve. Grow. Love.
Repeat.
And when we serve, each of us in the way that comes from our
heart, the gift we offer community is nourishing, life-changing, good. We build love.
Today, after we’ve broken bread together, we will toss some
service into the stone soup that is winter relief…we will add our gifts to
creating a welcoming shelter for those who don’t have a home of their own in
this winter weather. I am grateful for the
ways you offer yourselves to the world.
In recognition of that, we’re going to commission our
volunteers for the work they take on this week.
Leader:
All who take upon themselves the name of Christ
Are called into ministries of love and service by the
example of Christ.
As these members of our community begin their work
Among the people who will be sheltered in our building this
week,
We pray the blessings of God and this community upon their
work.
We recognize you as ambassadors of this congregation
In ministry with the people
sheltered in our building this week
And dedicate you to
service in the name of Jesus Christ.
Through our prayers
we will be united with you in your work.
May God richly bless
your labors.
Let us affirm our belief in the responsibilities of Christian
service.
We believe in God,
Creator of the world;
and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation.
We believe in the
Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts.
We commit ourselves
to the rights and dignity of all persons
and the improvement of the quality of life.
We dedicate ourselves
to peace throughout the world
and to the rule of justice and law among all nations.
We believe in the
present and final triumph
of God’s word in human affairs,
and gladly accept our commission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdmgpMfnjdU
Beloved, God has created you with unique gifts the world so desperately needs.
Jesus walks a path for you to follow.
The Holy Spirit surrounds you with the very breath of life, available even on those days when you cannot imagine taking one more step on the Way.
May you feel this guidance and grace, carrying it out into the world
to be light and goodness so needed.
Amen.
Love one another.
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