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

(From the United Methodist Book of Worship, pp 592 -593)

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.

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