MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN

Many pastoral care programs include a requirement that the person write their own obituary. The intention is to get us more in touch with our mortality ... that someday an obituary will be needed for every one of us.

But another affect of this process is to cause us to ask: "What is special about me? Why was I on this world? What difference did I make?"

How would you answer those questions? And specifically how would you answer them as a Christian? How would you answer when God asks: What was special about you? Why were you on the world? What difference did you make?"

Let's begin by understanding that not everyone wins the Nobel Peace Prize! Some very important answers to those questions can also seem somewhat tame or even insignificant on the surface: "I was a good mother." .... can seem too little but it can be the most important ministry any person lives out!

So we need to avoid the trap of false modesty -- What I do is not all that important. It is important to recognize our achievements as ministries - when appropriate.

More dangerous than false modesty is "padding our resume". That's we puff up our chests and talk about all the good things we have done. Even if we never actually voice any of that, we can do it quietly to the world's most important audience -- ourselves.

I suggest to you that today we heard Jesus write his obituary. Sure there would be the factual stuff added to it: Mary was His mother and Joseph His earthly father, first began preaching at age 30, never married Mary Magdelene, died on the cross.

But the heart of the obituary, the part which really says something about Jesus could easily read: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Quite an obituary. Quite a resume. How much of that could we live into and place in our obituary? ..... I believe those are exactly the instructions God is giving us, as well as to Jesus.

I will spend a moment on that but first let's look at some of the things which are NOT included. This week is both our church's and our diocese's annual meetings. As we gather for those two events, what of God's instructions will be mentioned ... and what else will be mentioned?

At the moment the Diocesan convention has 15 resolutions to consider. 12 of those are about things like who is eligible to vote at various times. .... I did not see any of that on Jesus' list!

St. Christopher's has been putting lots of energy into the building renovations. Lots of discussion and focus, and even debate. Where on Jesus' list is building renovations?

NOW - before someone gets too much angrier at me, let me clarify that I am NOT saying voting rules or building renovations are unimportant. I am certainly not calling them unChristian!!

But I do think it is important for us to remember our focus and our purpose.

I remember hearing about a church which was about to open a new youth and family center. When they asked someone to produce a news release for this event the PR person kept asking: "What is the story?" and they kept responding: "We are opening a new youth and family center." It took a long time for them to understand that the story is they NEEDED a new youth and family center because of all the people. The focus is on the people, not the building.

We do need to clarify who can vote in various elections. But we should be more concerned that the voting is about something substantive ... something God cares about ... something we would want to mention in our obituary.

We should do the best job possible with the renovations. But we should understand they are done to make possible the various ministries. I suspect we all know beautiful buildings which sit vacant or almost vacant. What matters is what happens within the building. The building, the budget, and even the ministers are tools to accomplish the ministries.

Before I allow anyone to ignore the original questions, let me re-state them: How much of Jesus resume or obituary can we live into and include in our's? Recognizing that Luke presents this teaching as the introduction to and explanation of Jesus' ministry ---- and therefore God's instructions to us, how much can we write down for ourselves?

I said not everyone can be a Nobel Peace Prize winner. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he gets even more specific. He points out that each of us have a role to play. We cannot play all the roles, all the positions. The most important part of that understanding may be that the roles other people play are (also) important.

Again, we need to avoid both false humility and excessive ego. The false humility would say: "I cannot do anything very big so why bother?" ... the excessive humility would say: "No one else does anything important!" Paul teaches that both attitudes are false, and sinful.

For example, every ministry needs an administrator. Using Paul's image, we might see the "hand" or "feet". That is someone who makes sure the necessary materials are available, the people have been provided information, the bills are paid, etc. This person frequently is behind the scenes and relatively unnoticed. But without them, nothing can happen.

The same is true of people with the gift of intercessory prayer or hospitality. Every ministry activity needs those people to be involved.

Not everyone is suited to those roles. But for people who are, they may not feel as if God is shouting at them to do a specific ministry activity such as feeding the homeless. Because they may not hear such a specific calling, they may feel as if they are not being called when in reality they may be the most important people in the entire ministry process. The people without whom, very little will happen!

Paul's challenge is for each of us to understand what part of this church body we are .... and then use that to improve the resume we will give to God! Whether we are being called to something very specific such as feeding the hungry or teaching young people, or whether we are called to be supportive of those ministries.

What is very exciting is that there are more of us waiting to serve than ever before! 2006 was a very good year. Our attendance set an all time record. So did financial contributions. Most excitingly I believe, is that to the best information I can find we had record highs in both youth and adult Sunday School and Bible studies.

Wow .... the body has grown. Now, Paul would say, what more can happen with the expanded body? New muscles ... new ideas ... how can they help this community to expand and improve the communities ... the church's resume?

The interesting thing about new muscles is that they require old muscles to work! This is not b e replacement but supplementing. Long time members have skills, talents, abilities, ideas and experience which are extremely valuable. Brand new members have skills, talents, abilities, ideas and experiences which are extremely valuable.

Whether you were here that first day 40 years ago, or this is your first day .... Paul tells us you have a role to play ... an absolutely essential role.

If you have a particular interest, PLEASE feel free to mention it. Possibly the time is perfect for it ... or maybe the time is not yet ripe. You would be surprised how often the answer is: "We have been praying for that!"

Whether a 40 yearer or brand new, if you are asked .... please try not to say "no" immediately! Go ahead and ask yourself if that could be a request, not from the church but from God. Ask yourself if this possibly is something that should be added to your resume.

You see ... and I know this is something difficult for many people to understand, much less accept. So rather than feeling as if you have to buy into it totally and immediately consider it one of those ideas you allow to float around and be tested by your experiences.

You see, both Jesus and Paul stress that all of this is possible through God's power working in our lives. We call that the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus began His obituary "the Spirit of God is upon me"

I invite you to especially remember that when you are trying to live out the next few words: "because he has anointed me to preach good news" Maybe more than in any other ministry, when we are willing to open our mouths and speak about God's love we discover it is not us, but God who does the speaking. It may not be eloquent, but it will be effective.

As our opening collect (prayer) phrased it: "give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ!"

AMEN

We have previous sermons on our website. To read an earlier sermon just enter: www.st-christopher.org/sermondate. For example, the July 16, 2006 sermon can be found at: www.st-christopher.org/sermon06-16-06

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