Listen to the Sermon or the Entire Service
July 27:
Call: Matthew 13: 31-32
Text: Romans 8: 26-28, 35-39
Read: W&S #43
Psalm: Psalm 105: 1-11, 45b (828)
Closing: Matthew 13: 44-52
WRKTGTHR FR GD
In the summer newsletter
I abolished and prohibited the term "summer vacation"
because all too often it leads us to believe that we must
vacate worshiping and communing with God
during the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day
between the end of one program year
and the beginning of the next.
I replaced the abolished term with a new one:
I called it "Reflective Intersession"
In doing so, I hoped to convey the idea that this time is a gift,
A gift of an opportunity to reflect, read, and worship
In order to strengthen our relationship with God
And to strengthen our understanding of that relationship
I have been using my Reflective Intersession to do that.
And one of the conclusions I have reached is
That I am important!
That may sound a bit - perhaps quite a bit - immodest
But it is true.
I am important.
I am important to God
And I am important to you
Whether you are an admirer or a detractor
I am, as your pastor, important to you.
Too, You are important!
This is likewise true.
Although it is considerably less immodest for me to point this fact out.
You are important
You are important to God
You are important to me
And You are important to each other.
And all that is good.
But you know what?
There have been times when some of you have disappointed me
And there have been times when some of you have annoyed me
And even though you are important to me,
This too is true.
Of course,
There have been times when some of you have been disappointed by me
And there have been times when some of you have been annoyed by me
And even though I believe I am important to you
I know this too is true
[In fact, I recognize that it is quite likely
that I have disappointed and annoyed you
more often than you have disappointed and annoyed me.]
Another relevant and incontrovertible fact is
That you and I have - way too often, I might add -
Annoyed and disappointed God
And yet, each of us remains - and will continue to remain -
important to God
We have been placed
in this village and in this building,
and in this diverse group that we call a congregation
not because we never disappoint, annoy, or disagree,
but because God put us together - for a purpose
And that purpose is:
To worship, to share, and to serve God.
As a team that works together.
We are expected to do so
Even when we do disappoint each other
Even when we do annoy each other
And Even when we do disappoint and annoy God
All congregations and pastors need to understand us
Because for some reason,
God so often chooses to work through flawed followers
And this is where
our textual scripture from Paul's letter to the church of Rome
and the two scriptures from Matthew
- both our call and our closing
come into play.
For all those scriptures - and many, many, many others -
Remind us that we are not only important
But also that
despite our many flaws and our numerous failures
all of us are needed and even essential
in order to fulfill the purpose of our coming together,
Now, in the 19th - and even well into the twentieth - century
Preachers often took a single verse of scripture as their text.
I have virtually never done that
Not only because the suggested lectionary scriptures always have more than one verse,
But also because most scriptures require the context of a multi-verse text.
However, for this morning, I am going to turn back the clock.
I am going to be like those older preachers
- albeit without the hour long sermons that they used to give.
For I am going to limit myself to only one of the eight verses
That the bulletin shows as our text.
That verse is Romans 8: 28
And I am about to present it
without its originally anticipated seven companions.
I do so, in order to make sure
that it does not get lost among,
Or hidden by,
the other words we would have heard.
I urge you to listen to it;
I urge you to remember it;
I urge you to take it seriously
And I pledge to you that I will too
Our scripture: [Romans 8: 28]
"We know" Paul writes
not: we think
not: we suppose
not: we guess
But "We know" "We understand" "We are confident"
that all things
do indeed work together for good
for those who love God
for those who are called according to God's purpose
Do we know that?
Do we really know that?
Or do we simply give lip service to it?
We answer those questions with our answer to another question:
"Do we live our lives relying on the fact that
all things - no matter how difficult or challenging
do work together for good for those who love God
Romans 8:28 is a confession of faith
Not merely a nice sounding proverb.
That confession, as Paul Achtemeier points out in his commentary,
Is NOT "some Pollyanna unwillingness to admit evil
even when it slaps us in the face."
[Interpretation "Acts" at p. 143]
No, it is a confession that
"because we are in God's hands,
the kind of God who sent his own Son for us,
all things will finally resolve into good" [pp. 143-144]
"All things" is a broad term,
it includes "people"
people like you and me
people who sometimes disagree
people who sometimes disappoint and annoy each other
And thus it seems to me that
Not only should we find this passage comforting
When we are challenged
Or when everything seems to be going wrong
And boy it is comforting on those occasions.
But we should also find it instructive
For us as individuals who are a part of a congregation.
For all the people in a congregation must work together for good
We are all essential; We are all needed
And
when some of us get annoyed or disappointed;
when some of us sulk in self pity and decide to withdraw or drop back; and
when some of us allow disappointments, disagreements, and annoyances to take priority over working together
We fail. We fail as individual followers
And We make it more difficult for the congregation
To accomplish and fulfill God's purpose for us
When any of us fail to carry our weight
We become like the missing vowels and missing space
In the message title
On the sign out front
And in the bulletins in your hands.
The absence of vowels and spaces
Made it harder to understand
that this morning we would be talking about
God's expectation that you and I "Work together for good."
Most of you figured out what the title was saying
But it took more time and more effort.
If I had left out the other two spaces
it would have been even harder
It would have required even more effort.
That is because we are like the vowels and the spaces
Important Needed Even Essential
When we are missing
It is harder for the consonants to do their job
It is harder for the words to communicate the message
The Matthew scriptures nicely frame our text
In our call to worship we heard Christ explain
That even the tiny mustard seed
Contributes as a part of God's creation
For it grows into a tree or bush
And gives the birds a place to rest.
And in the closing scripture Christ points out that
The old is as important as the new; and
The new is as important as the old.
Working together involves
The big and the little
The old and the new
The rich and the poor
All important; all needed; all essential
And together they all can and should,
- our scriptures tell us -
Work together for good.
Paul wrote:
We know that all things work together for good
for those who love God,
Who are called according to his purpose.
Paul says that we know that Do we?
Do our lives reflect that we know?
If not, hadn't we better start learning?