2012
Sermons
Dez 30 - Jesus Must
Dez 30 - I Will Not Forget
Dez 28 - Hear, See, Do
Dez 27 - Fresh Every Morning
Dez 24 - The Fullness of Time...for Us
Dez 23 - Emotions of Advent: Graced Wonder
Dez 16 - Confused Anticipation
Dez 9 - Moods of Advent: Anger
Dez 2 - Moods of Advent: Anxiety
Nov 25 - Not Overwhelmed
Nov 18 - Piles of Troubles
Nov 11 - Thankfulness
Nov 4 - The Communion of Saints...
Okt 28 - Look back, around, ahead!
Okt 21 - Consecration Sunday 2012
Okt 14 - The Right Questions
Okt 7 - God's Yes
Okt 6 - Waiting
Sep 30 - Insignificant?
Sep 23 - That pesky word "obedience"
Sep 16 - Led on their Way
Sep 15 - Partners in Thanks
Sep 12 - With Love
Sep 9 - At the edges
Sep 2 - Doers of the Word
Aug 26 - It's about God
Aug 19 - Jesus Remembers!
Aug 15 - Companion: Gratitude
Aug 12 - Bread of Life
Aug 11 - God's Silence and Speech
Aug 5 - One Faith, Many Gifts - Part 2
Jul 29 - One Faith, Many Gifts
Jul 25 - Rescue, Relief, Reunion, Rest
Jul 22 - Faithful Ruth, Mary, and God
Jul 15 - New World A-Comin'
Jul 8 - Take nothing; take everything
Jul 1 - Laughter
Jun 24 - Salvation!
Jun 17 - Really?
Jun 10 - Renewed by the Future
Jun 3 - Remember, O Lord
Jun 3 - Out of Darkness, Light!
Mai 27 - Dem bones gonna rise again!
Mai 20 - It’s all about me, me, me.
Mai 13 - Blame it on the Spirit
Mai 12 - More than Problems
Mai 6 - Pruned for Living
Apr 29 - Called by no other name
Apr 22 - No and Yes
Apr 22 - Who's in charge here?
Apr 22 - Time Well-used
Apr 15 - The Resurrection of the Body
Apr 8 - For they were afraid
Apr 7 - It's All in a Name
Apr 6 - For us
Apr 6 - No Bystanders
Apr 5 - The Scandal of Servant-hood
Apr 1 - Two Processions
Mrz 28 - The Rich Young Man, Jesus, and Us
Mrz 25 - The Grain of Wheat
Mrz 18 - Grace
Mrz 14 - Elijah, Jezebel, and us
Mrz 8 - The Best Use of Time
Mrz 7 - David, Saul, and Us
Mrz 4 - Despair to Hope, for Abraham, for Us
Mrz 2 - The Word and words
Feb 29 - Jacob, Esau, and Us
Feb 26 - In the wilderness of this day
Feb 22 - It Doesn't End Here
Feb 19 - Why Worship?
Feb 12 - The Person is the Difference
Feb 5 - Healing and Service
Jan 29 - On the Frontier
Jan 22 - What about them?
Jan 15 - Come and See
Jan 14 - Joy and Pain at Christmastime
Jan 8 - To marvel, to fear, to do, and thus believe
Jan 1 - All in a Name
Consecration Sunday 2012
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost - October 21, 2012
The Rev. W. Stevens Shipman
Two weeks ago I was at a meeting in Denver with about 1000 Lutherans.
The first night as we were preparing to offer table grace the leader
asked that we pray for blessing on the people who were serving us.
He soon realized that most of the servers were Latinos who had no idea we were praying for them.
The next night he recruited a Hispanic pastor to offer table grace and prayer for the servers in Spanish.
You could have heard a pin drop — and I suspect our food was just as blessed as with English.
There were two reasons I appreciate what he did.
First, it is simply good and right to pray for the folks working hard to care for our needs.
But second, it reminded us that we were the recipient of hospitality from many people.
And Lutheran church groups can sometimes be a bit cranky (ask any pastor, secretary, or custodian).
Sometimes like James and John in today’s gospel, we forget that we are in this world as servants.
We are most like God not when we try to exalt ourselves but when we serve others in love.
The Christ-like folks in that room in Denver were not so much we who came for the church meeting
but the people, most fairly recent immigrants, who were there serving us.
I have learned to thank folks I see cleaning bathrooms and hotel rooms, and busing tables
often to their amazement
because I want to remind myself to recognize Christ in them and to learn how to be a servant.
Today’s lessons teach the exact opposite of what we fallen human beings want our religion to be.
Fess up — there’s a lot of James and John in all of us.
Somebody watches those television preachers who promise health, wealth, and happiness.
And in Africa the greatest threat to Christianity is not Islam but their own “prosperity gospel”.
What we hear this morning about genuine Christ-likeness
is first of all the familiar Suffering Servant Song from Isaiah 53.
Then Psalm 91 which seems to assume the subject (Jesus) will need to be protected and rescued.
Hebrews reminds us that even the Son of God had to be made perfect (complete) through suffering.
And in the Gospel Jesus tells us the way to be first is to serve and sacrifice as he does.
We have a strong focus this morning on your financial commitment to St. Mark’s
And that is good — Pr. Elkin and the staff don’t want their paychecks to bounce.
and the organ won’t work very well if you don’t pay your electric bill.
But I would urge that you see consecration as not primarily about money but about servanthood.
Then the questions will not so much be about how much each of us will contribute to St. Mark’s
as to look to the ways St. Mark’s can help us respond to Christ’s call to servanthood.
You have many faithful servants here and you engage in many faithful ministries
Family Promise is just one way, and I’m sure a lot happens that I don’t know about.
Your worship life is not going to be fulfilling if you come only to gain something for yourself.
We worship not primarily to make us feel warm, happy, inspired, uplifted, or whatever.
Effective worship will equip us to go out in the world helping, inspiring, uplifting others including the ones we too often take for granted, like the servers there in Denver.
If we are going to talk about money, I have no doubt that there is more than enough money here today
not only to pay all the salary and utility bills for St. Mark’s for the coming year
but to give a healthy surplus your council can use to bring blessings to many.
But your act of consecration is nowhere near finished when you write a dollar amount on a piece of paper.
You will indeed be blessed as you open your bank account in generosity (how much do we need?).
But you will be even more blessed as you get involved with real human beings.
Not to lecture them on how they need to become good people like we are.
But to serve them with the sort of love Jesus has demonstrated in serving us.
Christianity is the total opposite of what we expect and even want religion to be.
We meet God in the world not in displays of power but in a Suffering Servant.
God comes not to demand from us but to give to us
God’s presence is not as a tyrant but as a servant, in humility and weakness.
As you consider your commitment to St. Mark’s for the coming year — and yes, this is important.
What you write on that faith promise card is only a small part of the consecration God seeks.
In your prayer life, in your study of the Bible, in your faithful worship
in the way you treat people at home, at work, in the neighborhood.
Your financial stewardship is an essential part of your consecration in response to Christ’s love.
And as you look you will find many opportunities to be a servant.
In serving, you will be what Luther calls a Christ to your neighbor — and what a privilege that will be!
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Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him. |