Shaping the Witness
Ephesians 3: 1-12
Happy New Year AGC. It is good to be back with you after a two week vacation. I am refreshed, renewed and ready for a new year of God’s grace and God’s service. Much of my vacation was spent enjoying the God’s outdoor creation, walking on sunny beaches, shooting hoops with my grandsons, watching amazing sunsets with my sweetheart and being instructed by my daughter about how the foam gets into those fluffy drinks at her gourmet Oceanside coffee shop.
Before we left for California, I chose the lectionary scripture for today, placed it in a greased bowl, covered it and waited for it to rise in my spirit as I reflected on it throughout my travels. It doubled in size and here I am, back to share my reflections with you.
This morning is epiphany Sunday, the day set aside in the church year to remember that the Magi’s visit to the Christ child signaled that the birth of Jesus was not a local event but a global one and that his kingship would extend to all people.
The apostle Paul was most excited to share that all of us are joint heirs in Christ; Jews and Gentiles alike. This aspect of the “good news” is what shaped Paul’s witness? What shapes your witness?
Not all of us were born to share a literal Gospel message like Paul. Each of us is a reflection of an aspect of God that is unique to us. In our congregation, Terri reflects God differently than does Tim, Todd, or Stacha. Each serve God in diverse ways.
This week because of the passing of our 38th President, we’ve heard a lot about the unique service of Gerald Ford. Ford was often referred to as the “accidental President”. There was nothing accidental about it. What shaped and became his witness was eulogized by dozens over the past weeks.
The New York Times remembered Ford as bringing the ordinary virtues of decency, integrity and humility to mend a broken government after the pain of war and scandal. His witness grew after the White House Watergate scandal as an entire nation held it’s collective breath and he was called to bring about healing. In a eulogy by current President Bush, Bush added that “he [Ford] brought grace to a moment of great doubt”.
Journalist Tom Brokaw reminded us “Gerald Ford brought to the political arena no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit list or acts of vengeance. He knew who he was, and he didn’t require consultants or gurus to change him.”
I wonder if Ford new the legacy and hope he engendered. I ask this because years ago I had a dream. I dreamt I had died and found myself in a library filled with identical shelves and what appeared to be identical books. As I looked closer I realize that the spine of each book contains a range of dates like 1871 or 1999. Inside each book, organized according to the date they died, is a one paragraph description of the person’s life mission. Each book contains thousands of life mission statements, remembered after death. In this dream I wanted to see what my statement read and as I reach for my entry, I woke up. Literally I woke up! I woke up to my life, woke up to what God wanted from my life, woke up to a reactivated enthusiasm about shaping my own witness. Not long after the dream I enrolled in Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. My witness continues to take shape. It would be easier if our life’s purpose would arrive neatly typed out in advance and sent to us via email or flaming dart. I’ve learned that’s not how it works. Our life’s purpose is often sculpted one experience at a time, one light bulb moment at a time, until it all adds up to vocation or a passion or a way of being in the world.
This week we’ve heard as much about the former first lady Betty Ford as we have President Ford. Her strengths and her own witness has been shaped by a lifetime of service as a woman, a mother, a wife and a first lady.
The New York Times wrote, "Mrs. Ford's impact on American culture may be far wider and more lasting than that of her husband, who served a mere 896 days, much of it spent trying to restore the dignity of the office of the president." She was a passionate advocate for women’s rights and abortion. Weeks after Betty Ford became First Lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer. Her openness about her illness raised the visibility of a disease that Americans had previously been reluctant to talk about.
In 1978, the Ford family staged an intervention and forced Betty Ford to confront her alcoholism and an addiction to opioid analgesics that had been prescribed in the early 1960s for a pinched nerve. "I liked alcohol," she wrote in her 1987 memoir. "It made me feel warm. And I loved pills. They took away my tension and my pain". As a result she founded the Betty Ford Center for the treatment of substance abuse. Again her candor and willingness to talk about subjects previously not talked about, her life has had a saving effect on hundreds if not thousands.
When Gerald Ford and eventually Betty take their books down off of heaven’s library shelves, there will be an amazing review of their legacy; shaped over a lifetime. As I watched Fords funeral I was struck by how much their personal faith entered the chosen services. The funeral was held in the same church they were married in 68 years earlier. That let the world know that Christ and church still hold the center in their journey.
For the Apostle Paul’s entry, we will no doubt read again what shaped and became his witness. Perhaps we will read it in his own words:
Of this gospel I have become a servant…. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; So that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.
Do you know what it means “that through the church the wisdom of god in its rich variety might be made known”?
Paul is talking about you and I. Every person, every child of the Creator is part of the human tapestry Paul refers to as God’s ‘rich variety’. Look around this sanctuary. Look to whoever you’re sitting next to. Now there’s some rich variety!
If you died tomorrow how would your witness be eulogized? Would it be an accidental eulogy that would surprise you? Or would you say, “Yup. That’s me. That’s what I understood my gifts to be and that is how I used them.”
You do not need to create world peace; perhaps you bring peace into a room whenever you enter it. Maybe your beautiful singing voice calms the soul and gives flight to new graces in people’s lives.
Within this room there are over two hundred fifty examples of God’s rich variety.
Each Sunday Frank Kursinsky hands you a service bulletin from his wheel chair. Say good morning to Frank and the smile you’ll be gifted with will bring sunshine to even the most overcast day. Frank’s sweet spirit is his gift and purpose. Frank makes us accountable for our own joy.
Grace Fischer-Schneider is a member of our healing and wholeness team. Grace is perfectly named. She brings angel energy into a space and offers her special gift of healing to anyone who is in need.
Ken and Bob run our Whispering Hope store. Ken and Bob have parlayed their business sense and love of buying and love of this church into a viable business that provides funding for our ministries here at All God’s Children.
Greg Grinley brings his passion for the GLBT community to his job as Executive Director for Pfund. Pfund raises money and gives grants to organizations and projects dedicated to advancing our future.
Chuck Larsen, even in his retirement as an MCC pastor, takes his turn as a communion server. A communion blessing from Chuck is guaranteed to make you feel the love of God gushing all over you.
Each one of you has a story, a gift, and a way of sharing that gift. Each of us is developing and multiplying that gift as we grow in witness; shaped by worshipping in community.
We are joint heirs with Christ, members of the same body. That is God’s greatest grace for all of us. Part of the mystery that is God is that God shows up in each one of us. Together we worship, laugh, cry and play, serving one another and thereby serving God.
Find your passion and you will shape your witness. Let’s make 2007 an amazing year. Amen.