Annual meeting
January 27, 2019
3 Epiphany C
When I was in my first parish, one of my responsibilities was keeping our youth program running, which included recruiting volunteers. This was a large youth program that was split into three groups, and we needed several volunteers to make it work. So, one day, I had a conversation with a dad, whose son was in my senior high group. I wanted the dad to be the junior high leader. When I first approached him, he said, “nope, no way, you got the wrong guy. I don’t have those skills, I’m busy….” you get the idea. So, I said, “just do my a favor. Pray about it for the next week. If, in a week, the answer is no, I will respect that”. He agreed, and as he left, he said, “but it will still be no, so you better figure out who else to ask”. Ok, I said… I did not have someone else to ask, nor was I going to figure out who else to ask. I too, was going to pray for the next week, and hope that he and the mom I had asked would both say yes.
So, a week went by, and my office door was open, and suddenly, there he was, standing there with the mom I had asked who had also been reluctant to say yes… and he said, “I’ll do it if she does it!”, pointing to the mom… “I’ll do it if he does it!” she said, pointing to him. And I just smiled. “So I take it you both prayed?” Yes, came the reply in stereo… Excellent… you are both going to be great… “I don’t know why I’m doing this”, he said, “this is crazy”. “God called you… it’s always crazy”, I said. Fast forward about 2 years, and I was no longer at the parish, and living in another town. That youth group was going to be stopping for dinner in the town I lived, and they wanted our family to come and join them for dinner, which we did. The dad came over to me at dinner and said, “Well, I signed up for another term. This has been the most amazing, frustrating, maddening, life giving thing I have ever done. It’s all your fault. Thank you”. Thank YOU… I said… for answering God’s call.
Isn’t like that for most of us? No, not me, you’ve got the wrong guy, I don’t know how to do this, God must have meant someone else, I’m busy… the list of “why we can’t” is endless. And, we all know that Jesus is relentless when he asks something of us…
Our readings for today are so perfect for a parish about to hold its annual meeting. In our gospel, we hear Jesus reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah… "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Once he is finished reading, he tells those assembled that the scripture has been fulfilled in their hearing, that is, Jesus, is the one whom the prophet is speaking of who is anointed to do all these things. It’s kind of a brave and foolish act to come to your hometown and proclaim that you’re the fulfillment of scripture… but he is… and here’s the thing for us… there’s a sense in which we become the continuation of the fulfillment. Jesus’ work isn’t over by a longshot. Because there are poor among us, there are captives today, there are those who need to have their sight, be in their physical sight or their internal, spiritual sight, there are those who are oppressed today, and those who need to know that they are the object of the Lord’s favor, here today in this church and out there on the streets of Oklahoma City, and on every street, every road, every dirt path, that exists everywhere… and because we have been anointed with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, it’s now the work he has given us to do. We cannot say, I’m not the guy… we are the guys… there are no other guys, we are the guys. And Jesus never said it would be easy, or that other people wouldn’t get in our way; it certainly wasn’t easy for him… and if we are proclaiming and being good news to the poor and the oppressed, and the captives, someone, somewhere is going to get mad because they don’t understand a fundamental principle in the kingdom of God… and that is, there is enough for everyone. God loves like God farms, remember? Foolishly, extravagantly, and without caring what society has to say about it… and as Jesus’ ministry continues, we know that this foolish extravagance makes the powerful really, really angry. And that’s still true in many places today…
The good news for us, especially as we look at where we have been and where we are going, is that no one is alone in this work. We have a community of brothers and sisters who have also received God’s call, God’s anointing to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world. As we hear from Paul this morning, the body of Christ has many members; none of us are the same; all of us have different gifts, and we are called to do our part as individuals and as a community, for the good of the Kingdom. When I asked that dad to do ministry with the middle school youth, I knew that he was the member of that community that had the skills for that ministry; not all of us have those skills, it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask someone who didn’t have the ability to work well with kids; yet there were other places for those people to minister. It’s the same with St. David’s. It can be overwhelming to think about the poverty that surrounds us, but our calling has been pretty clear; focus on one area; do it well… see what happens. It’s hard being a small church with fewer resources, but we are still called. What are we? We are small but MIGHTY… and look how much we have done and continue to do… the food baskets to Hilldale school have not only grown in the number of baskets per event, but we also give baskets three times a year instead of two; our Daughters of the King chapter has started a small lunch sak pantry so that no matter who comes through our doors, even if we don’t have money to give, no one leaves the building without something to eat; we have responded to the shortfall in our internal ministry to each other by creating more opportunities to connect in a class or study, or movie night; we now have more clergy that can help all of us connect to the interfaith ministries of our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters who are also trying to help their neighbors here in Oklahoma City, a project that has been on my heart for some time, but one that I never seemed to have enough time to get to… we have more people involved in the worship of the church than before, something that makes worship so meaningful and wonderful. Our sign is finally in… and people are noticing it. What a great way to let our neighbors know that we are here… Little by little we have done all kinds of improvements inside and outside; Hal, Paul, Tommy, Caleb, and various minions have continued to keep up with landscaping, making some changes both for looks and for function… it’s a joy not to have wet carpet in my office!
We will celebrate all of this later at our official meeting, but I wanted us as the body of Christ that Paul talks about to know some of what we have been called to do. I have no doubt there will be other ministry that we will be called to do as individuals and as a community… our lesson from Nehemiah tells us that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” and God is indeed filled with joy, filled with the knowledge of Jesus’ relationship with us when we honor the 2 great commandments that Jesus has given us, to love God and to love our neighbors. We cannot do one without the other, for by loving and serving our neighbors, we love and serve God… and because we are members of the kingdom, members of the body of Christ, we know that there is enough… for us, and for all…
So beloved, we are the guys. We are the ones whom God has chosen for our particular call in this place and time… we are the guys.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in our hearing. We ARE the guys...
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