Being Grateful
I want to thank you for allowing me a week of vacation so soon after starting as your Interim Pastor. Laura and I spent these days in Chicago. It was “Homecoming” at the seminary. We are both graduates of The Lutheran School of Theology. That is where we met and started our courtship. It was a great opportunity to see friends, relive fun moments as well as challenging experiences, and to make new acquaintances.
In making those new acquaintances, we found common ground in those who had been our professors and mentors. In starting to get to know you, I would learn much about you from the way you speak of your experience in a classroom with Karl Bratton, or Author Voobus, or Frank Senn. You learned a lot about the person and gained insights to their decades of ministry by hearing to whom they gave recognition for their formation.
None of us get to where we are alone. We are formed by our encounters with others. All good gifts have an impact on us and they make of us what we have become. Some recognize this. Some pretend they got to where they are on their own.
In returning to thank Jesus, the cleansed leper as acknowledging how this encounter had changed his life. By giving praise to God, this Samaritan is making it clear that he did not do this on his own.
None of us get to where we are alone. All good gifts have an impact on us and they make of us what we have become. Some recognize this. Some pretend they got to where they are on their own.
We are in the midst of our fall stewardship campaign. There are vestiges of “talking about money” in this sermon. Let me make sure to be real clear, this preacher has very little interest in talking about something as inconsequential as those folded green things in your purse. But this preacher has served enough congregations to know that those digits in our bank accounts follow the path taken by our hearts and our ambitions. It would not upset as many folks if stewardship campaigns were “about money.” What upsets most of us is being asked to look at what the way we use money says about our lives.
Some want to assert they got to where they are as a result of their own efforts and hard work. Others are more prepared to see how God’s good gifts have made possible the good things which have come into their lives.
Again, I want to suggest this is what we learn from Luke 17. This story teaches what we might not readily see. In these verses, it is obvious that the man’s needs were met by Jesus. It may not be as obvious to us. If professors and mentors in graduate school have such an impact on how we carry out our professional work, think of the impact an every present and all loving God has had. The encounter in Luke 17 is a challenge to us – it asks us whether we are aware of the need to offer thanks and praise.
This morning is the first meeting of this congregation’s Confirmation Ministry Class. Keeping with the rotation Pastor Miles had established, we are looking at the Apostles’ Creed. I am sure you ask your pastor to teach the Catechism to your children because you have already committed it to memory and know of its wisdom. Am I right?
As a reminder, we reprinted portions of Luther’s explanation of the first article of the Apostles’ Creed on the inside cover of your bulletin. Look at it with me: In Luther's Small Catechism we are reminded that everything we have is a gift from God. "God has given me and still preserves my body and soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothes, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property - along with the necessities and nourishment for this body and life."
Some may pretend they got to where they are as a result of their own energy or effort. But we believe and teach that all good things are a gift from God.
The seminary professor who had the greatest impact on my formation is Phillip Hefner (no relation). He does his theology from the perspective of the creation. He sees the workings of God as nudging us toward an as-of-yet undetermined future. His somewhat overused description of our place in God’s cosmos was to refer to us as “created co-creators.” Hefner formed us to think of ourselves as God’s agents in making the world the place God would prefer for it to be. It is for this reason that I lift my voice with regard to climate change. Seeing myself as a created co-creator leads me to advocate for a society in which education is readily available. I have had the benefit of others looking out for me and caring for me. God has blessed me in so many ways. Aware of how I got to the good place in which I find myself, I will return to give thanks. That expression of gratitude will involve using all the resources at my disposal to see that others are also afforded the opportunities from which I have benefited so greatly.
Some – maybe as many as nine out of ten – will scurry on their way. But the impact of one who returns is profound. Details about the nine are lost. For two thousand years the individuality of the one has been lifted up and celebrated.
Some want to assert they got to where they are as a result of their own efforts and hard work. Others are more prepared to see how God’s good gifts have made possible the good things which have come into their lives.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment