Sunday - 06/02/13 RWJ/Pottersville
UMC
Sermon: “I
am unworthy”
Scripture
Lesson: Galatians 1:1-12
Gospel
Lesson: Luke 7:1-10
Good morning brothers and
sisters! What a joy and a pleasure it is to be here with you all on this our “Second
Sunday after Pentecost.” This is the time of the year in the Methodist Church that
we call “Kingdomtide,” or as our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters call it “Ordinary
Time.” This essentially means the time after Easter, Pentecost, and last Sunday’s
Trinity Sunday. This time of our yearly liturgical calendar is usually
designated by the color green. Some churches use the white on communion Sundays
however, or if other sacramental services are occurring.
So
the good news for those folks who are always rushing about to try to change and
figure out, “what color will it be next week?” Your answer for next week, and several
weeks is, it will be green. This will largely be the case in fact, until we
enter into our advent season for the Christmas season. Many folks always see
this time of the year that we are entering into as a “slow time” in the life of
the church, or a “down time,” but I don’t see it that way. I see our
Kingdomtide or Common Time as the time we replenish, we grow in scripture, we grow
in faith, and we grow in the gospel.
I remember I was in my
first seminary that I attended for the first two years of my seminary journey,
and I raised my hand and asked the pastor/professor one day about this whole liturgical
calendar things. I guess everyone “should just know these things as Christians,”
but I didn’t. So I asked the pastor/professor, “Did Jesus take the summer and
early fall off?” The pastor/professor promptly said, “Paul, what do you mean by
that question?” I said, “Was Jesus only a late Fall, Winter, and Spring-time
teacher and miracle worker.” Well at this point the pastor/professor burst out
laughing, and said, “No Paul! We just don’t have any holidays during the summer
months.”
So given all of this, in
the summer months and the early fall, during Jesus’ ministry, he was very much
teaching, healing, proclaiming, and performing miracles during these months we
now refer to as “Kingdomtide,” or “Ordinary time.” Additionally, this time of
the year is also called by many church trustee members, “the time the pastor
thinks they can take several weeks of vacation time.”
So with all of this said,
the title of my sermon today, is “I am unworthy.” To better explain this sermon
title, let me jump right into today’s scripture readings. In the reading from
this morning from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, or the
Galatians, as they were known, he said, “Paul an apostle-sent neither by human
commission not from human authorities, but though Jesus Christ and God the
Father, who raised him from the dead.” As the Apostle Paul moves further down
in this scripture, he says to the church in Galatia, “I am astonished that you
are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are
turning to a different gospel-not that there is another gospel, but there are
some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.” The
Apostle Paul tells the congregation in Galatia, “Am I now seeking human
approval, or God’s Approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I we still
pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
The Apostle Paul goes on
to finish today’s scripture from Galatians, encouraging the congregation in
Galatia to cling to Christ, his message, and his gospel. Yet I have to admit,
sometimes one of my struggles as a pastor and as a person is that I often want
to please everyone. In fact, I can very much be a “people pleaser.” Yet you can
never make everyone happy, can you? Someone is always bound to be disappointed or
unfulfilled by our failed attempts to make them happy. I have found for me, in
my own life, that when I look at human standards, I can very quickly say and
think, “I am unworthy.” I might say, “If I am called by almighty God to preach
his word and serve his people, then why can I make them all happy?”
Jesus I think would say to
me, “Paul love them all, and do you best by me, and I will bless you. I will
tell you, “Well done good and faithful servant.” I think Jesus would also say
to me, “In me you are never unworthy, but to world, you will always feel unworthy.”
You see when I try to be all things to all people; I quickly become
discouraged, and quickly feel like, “I am unworthy.”
In the gospel of Luke
reading from this morning, Jesus was just entering the town of Capernaum. The
gospel reading from this morning said, “A centurion there had a slave whom he
valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus,
he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal this slave. When
they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of
having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our
synagogue for us.” So listen what happens next in this gospel reading. It says,
“And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the
centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord do not trouble yourself, for I am
not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come
to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.”
One of the friends than
said, “For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I
say to one, “Go,” and he goes, and to another, “Come,” and he comes, and to my
slave, “Do this,” and the salve does it. At this, the gospel reading said, “When
Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crown that followed
him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. When
those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good
health.”
You see, Jesus I think,
wants our devotion, not our denial of him. When we judge ourselves by earthly
standards, we will often say as the centurion in this gospel story said, “I am
unworthy.” Yet when Christ sees our devotion to him, he is so touched that he
heals and blesses us. We will not find worthiness in this world, but will
always be worthy in the Kingdom of God. For in the Kingdom of God we are all,
without any exceptions, God’s created, chosen, and preciously made children. Children
that are all royalty, for all you women are princesses, and all you men are
princes, as your Father, as your savior, is the King of Kings, and the Lord of
Lords. You are part of the royal family, the royal priesthood, and you stand to
inherit the greatest inheritance of all time. God took on flesh as a man named
Jesus and died for us, so that we may life. Christ was broken, so that we didn’t
have to be. Christ was broken for everyone alive, and all those to come. In his
crucifixion, he said, clearly and boldly, “you are worthy.” “In you my child, “I
am well pleased.”
So brothers and sisters
don’t ever think or let anyone ever tell you, that you are not worthy of God’s
love. We serve a master that is so loving, so powerful and so mind blowing,
that his forgiveness is not only guaranteed, it is eternal, and it was formed
with three nails, a cross, and a lot of love. For he did this “for the least of
these.”
Yet I seemed to have
forgotten all of this yesterday brothers and sisters. For on Friday night of
our Upper New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, all the
pastors were recognized. The newest local licensed pastors like me we processed
up front, where we shook the hand of our beloved Bishop Mark Webb, and she
shook all our hands, as well. There was discomfort in this for me, as I had
little fragments of feelings that “I am unworthy.” Yesterday our Annual
Conference ended, as they all do, with a service of commissioning, recognizing,
and ordaining new clergy. It is the tradition of not only the United Methodist Church,
but many churches to start theses services with a procession of the clergy into
the sanctuary or worship area. At the front of the pack of course, was Bishop
Webb, with his episcopal insignia and his shepherd’s staff. Next to him was a
person carrying a cross on a stick, which where both then placed in holders on
the stage. I for the first time ever, was part of that clergy processional.
Generally in these
processionals, all clergy get “robed up” as well call it. Yet I hadn’t brought
the robe I am wearing right now. For I am only a new pastor, and while I have
been a pastor for almost a year, surely I thought, “I am not worthy to process
into the floor our Annual Conference with our ordained and seasoned clergy.” So
the procession line had formed, and I was sitting in the laity section, not
even in the clergy section. My friend Scott who is about to get licensed as a
local licensed pastor, and is in his 50’s, said, “Paul why are you sitting in
the laity section?” “Why aren’t you in the processional line that is about to
come into this floor of this Annual Conference?” I said, “You know what Scott,
I am a new pastor to the conference, and I didn’t even bring my robe, because I
didn’t think that such a new pastor would be allowed to process into the
ordination service.” I then said, “Here I am in my plaid button down shirt with
no robe.” He then said as he pointed to the hallway where all the pastors were lined
up, and said, “You see her? You see him? You see her?” I said, “Yes, I see
them.” He then said, “But Paul, they don’t have on robes either, and they are
processing.” Then I said, “I see that Scott, but I feel unworthy to process
into the floor of our Annual Conference in being such a new pastor.”
Then Scott said, “Paul you
almost done with seminary, you have inspired countless people, you have been
board approved, favored, loved, and licensed to preach the gospel and serve in
God’s church. Don’t ever tell me that you are “unworthy.” Then he said, “Now go
get in line with your brothers and sister, because I will be in line with you next
year.” Then he said, “After all next year you are probably going to be getting
commissioned as a provisional elder next year, and soon ordained into our church.”
“Take you place,” he said, “Take your place Paul.”
How humbled I was brothers
and sisters, to process into the Annual Conference with my plaid shirt. Proudly
standing the on the promises of Jesus Christ, and finally feeling worthy to be
a pastor in his church.
You see brothers and
sisters, if the devil cannot destroy our faith, he will try to whisper mistruths
in our ears. He will say, “you can’t,” “you won’t,” and he will say, “your
unworthy.” Jesus says though, “I did this for the least of these.” Jesus says, “the
least will be the greatest.” The reality is then there is nothing you can do to
make Jesus love you more than he already loves you right now.
So I pray in this time and
in this place that our church may stand on the promises of almighty God, and
reinvigorate our faith, our church, and our hearts in Jesus Christ. For as our
founder John Wesley said about faith and the Holy Spirit, “Catch
on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.”
When we feel unworthy though, our fire is vanquished and our passion is gone.
Trust is Jesus, and put your faith in him.
I
would like to close this morning with a funny story. I have to admit I stole this
story from our bishop’s ordination sermon from yesterday. This is a story about
“Chippie” the bird. Here is how it goes: “There’s the story of a woman who had a parakeet
named Chippie. She loved Chippie because he was such a happy little song bird.
Chippie’s constant chirping just seemed to brighten her day. One day
though, the woman was cleaning the bottom of Chippie’s cage with a vacuum
cleaner when the telephone rang. She reached for the telephone without removing
the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner from the cage, which was a mistake. The vacuum
cleaner nozzle got pointed in the direction of poor little Chippie, and he was
suddenly sucked up into the machine.
When the woman looked
back at the cage and realized what had happened, she was horrified. She dropped
the telephone, turned off the vacuum cleaner and ripped open the dust bag to
get to her little bird. Chippie was a real mess, but he was still alive. She
raced to the kitchen sink and turned the water on full force on Chippie. The
more she tried to wash him, the worse he looked, so she took him to the
bathroom and started trying to dry Chippie with her hair dryer–full force and
high heat. Finally she got the bird dry and put him back in his cage.
Several days later, a
friend called and asked how Chippie was doing. “He’s alive,” he said, “but he
just sits in his cage and stares into space. And,” she added thoughtfully,
“Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore.”
We all know people who
are a lot like Chippie. We know young people who once had a song in their
hearts. But due to circumstances out of their control, they discovered that the
life had been “sucked” out of them. As a result, they aren’t singing much
anymore.
Brother and sisters let
us this week, and forever more not be like “Chippie.” If the world tries to “suck”
the life out of us, and tell us that were unworthy, let us remember, that Jesus
says otherwise. Let us remember that were people of the resurrection. That we
are children of the risen King, and that we stand to inherit the kingdom of
God. So don’t ever think that you are “unworthy.” Praise God and Amen.
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