Sermon: "A Part at the Party"

2nd in the "Something to Celebrate" series.
Delivered December 10, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

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Well, as Kathy just shared the Urbana Missions Conference is coming up and at that conference ??? people have received their call to mission, and that was true for Debbie and I too. In 1976 we were at the Urbana Mission Conference and this was on our first anniversary. So, on our first anniversary we are sleeping in separate rooms at a mission conference. You can tell how romantic I am. And at that conference we felt a call to mission that shaped the next ten years of our lives as we prepared to go in the mission field, and then for ten years of our lives as we served God in Japan. I have been to six Urbana's; two of those I have been a guest, once as a student and once as an alumni, but the other four times I went as a staff member and those were the ones that I enjoyed the most.

I can remember in particular 1981. I went to Urbana and I was invited to be part of the 2100 media team. They make spectacular media presentations. Now, I wasn't invited on to that team because of my skill. I was invited on to that team because I was from Louisiana and they had pity on me and didn't put me on parking lot duty at night in subzero weather. What an exciting thing to be part of an event like that and taking a role, even without skill, just adding my labor, adding whatever I could to make this incredible event happen. And even though on other years when I had less glamorous duty, it was still especially exciting because I had a role to play. I was helping make this thing happen that was blessing the world. Part of us is built inside in such a way that we are not really fulfilled unless sometimes we are involved in something that really matters, that we take a part to play. We can't just be a guest to everything in our lives. It's great to be a guest. It's great to go a hotel or a resort or be on a cruise ship, but we can't live that way day after day. That is why the children or the grandchildren of the really rich go one or two ways in life. Either they become extremely self-absorbed and weird and I have some people in mind or they invest themselves to use all of the resources, to use their time since they don't have to work to earn a living, they use that energy to be on boards of major foundations to take and shape the way money is used so that people, needy people can be blessed all over the world.

We need to be involved. It's the way we are made. We are made to be in the game and not just to watch it. It's the way we are. But when it comes to God's work in the world, it gets a little scarier because when we think about God's work in the world we are a lot like Mary was. You know she thought of in the sketch that we just heard that God's word, God's action came to the big heavy hitter types, people like King David. Okay, king is not in front of my name. King David, the prophet Isaiah. And so when we think about ourselves being involved, no it can't be me. I am way to average. I don't have the sort of gifts. I am not the sort of person that can play a critical role. We feel inadequate. Well in the passage that we are going to read today in Luke, Chapter 1, Verses 26 to 38, we are going to run into a truly inadequate person, Mary, totally inadequate for the role she was going to play in history and yet God called this girl to be in a unique role, one of the most amazing responsibilities that have ever been given to anyone. Let's read now from the gospel of Luke.

"In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her."

Let's pray: God we thank you for this your Word and pray now that we will hear what you want to say to us and that we might make the proper response to you. A response of obedience, that comes through faith. We thank you God in Jesus' name. Amen.

The angel comes to Mary and it says in Verse 29, her first response to this visit is Mary was greatly troubled. Now, why is she greatly troubled? I think first, she is troubled because she is getting a visit by an angel. That alone is troubling. You wake up and you are expecting it to be a normal morning, you know you are going for your cornflakes and there is an angel in the room. The spiritual, the things of God, the intangibles, the things that we believe, but maybe there is a little part of us that still doesn't believe and all of a sudden it's real and its in the room. That's troubling. But it's also troubling because Mary is aware that God's visitation, that this angel messenger isn't sent so that the angel can come and say, "Mary, God's favor is on you, bye-bye." That it isn't a self-esteem visit. Repeatedly in scriptures when angels come, when there are these moments of confronting God in some way, that's more than through the normal way, through visions, dreams, yes there is this word of God's blessing in favor, but inevitably it comes with a commission from God, with an invitation from God for us to get involved in what he is doing. Abraham in the Old Testament a long time before Mary, he was called and he was given an incredible promise that his family would have land and he would have descendants without number and that this group would be a blessing to the whole world and then God called him to leave his hometown and leave his family. Mary knew this. Mary knew that with this word of favor was a call, an invitation. She is invited not just to be a guest, but to get involved and it was good, because she like us was made to be in the game and not just to watch it.

Mary is also troubled for another reason. She is troubled because she feels inadequate. Let's face it, she is inadequate, at least for the kind of commission that God has given her. She doesn't have any long history of things to point to about her abilities. She has just had the normal responsibilities of a young girl in her own family unit and then God comes and through the visit of an angel confers upon her this blessing. She knows she is not worthy of it and she knows that she does not have it within herself to fulfill whatever kind of destiny God gives her through this angel unless God gives grace. And so, that's the big point that's here.

As she is feeling inadequate the main point here to begin is that this invitation is given through grace and invites us to experience God's grace in taking part of it. Everything in God's call to Mary hinges upon God's own power and grace. The angel makes this clear in Verse 35. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." It's God's responsibility. It's God's grace. Can these promises be fulfilled in her life? Yes, because it's God's grace and God's responsibility. Verse 37, "for nothing is impossible with God."

It's the same for us. Even though God hasn't called any of us to this sort of earth shaking, singular role in history, when he calls us to whatever contributions we will make, when he calls us to be involved, when he calls us to get into the game, it's not because we have earned the right to be involved, it's given out of grace. It's not because we have all the right kind of stuff to fulfill these things for God, no, even the gifts we have, the strengths we have, the opportunities we have are a gift of grace. The fruit that comes through our service is a gift of grace. Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. We can't do anything apart from him. It's a gift of grace. It's a gift of grace despite our failings. It's a gift of grace despite our history, despite the other times that we felt weak. It's a gift.

Everybody probably has some kind of ornament like this or has at least made an ornament like this. I don't need to bring it close to you because you've got your own copy or you have made it for someone else. It's a little angel and it has the picture of one of our children on it. It was given to us in 1984. Now, did our son plan this gift? Well no, it was his pre-school teacher. She is the one that realized that in the course of a year you have to give your mom a gift and Christmas is one of those time. So let's give them a nice gift, so she is the one that planned it. She is the one that gathered all of the materials so that it could be done. Did he cut this out? No. She even cut it out. Now, there is this little face on here, did he take his own picture? No. She took the picture. But then he did play his role, because he then decorated it and put his face in the center and when he gave this gift to us it really was his gift, but it was a gift given from his heart that would have been totally impossible without a whole lot of help.

And the same is true for us when we serve God. Whose plan is it to bless this world, to work in people's hearts, to bring forgiveness, to bring right relationships between people and between people and God, to bring mercy and love where there is injustice and violence? Whose plan is it to change history? It's God's. Whose the one that is assembling people all over the world to be involved, who has given us the gifts, whose provided us the resources to be poised on the edge of being able to do something that matters? Who did that? It was God. And then he invites us to play our role. And when we give our gift to God and we get into the game, the gift that we give to others, the gift we offer to God is really our gift. It really matters that we are involved and yet it would have never happened apart from grace; the grace that surrounds any gift that we give to God.

But Mary does have something vital to offer and that comes out in Verse 38. This is what she says, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." What Mary can uniquely offer is her willingness to get involved, her willingness to be a channel of God's grace. That is what she uniquely has as part of this thing that God was doing.

Now, we live in a society that is becoming increasingly anonymous and when people don't know us and we don't other people, it's real easy to start feeling that we don't have to be involved to become apathetic. Since we don't know the people on the side of the road, when we see somebody stranded, we figure that they probably have their own cell phone or somebody else has already stopped and made a call or a policeman is going to be by any minute and we don't do anything. It's around Christmas and it's getting cold. We know that there are hungry people, homeless people and we assume that someone else is out there giving their money, giving their time, so that the needs of people like this are being fulfilled. We know it has to happen, but we don't know them. We don't know them by name. It's somebody else's responsibility. Somebody else will write to our congressman. Someone else will vote. Somebody else!

Our son-in-law ran in to a guy who was laying inert on the sidewalks in Vancouver. Everyone was walking around this guy. They were stepping over him, rather than stopping. So he stopped and tried to arouse the guy and he couldn't get the man's attention. And so he started to talk other people in to helping, to make a call to the emergency services, to call 911. And people were not willing to stop. Some would make comments like, "Oh he's just drunk" but he took a look at this guys clothes and he said, "These are not the clothes of a person who is drunk or someone living on the streets or anything else like that." It turned out that the man had had a heart attack and had just lived in one of the buildings that were nearby and people were just stepping over him, stepping around him, not even willing to call 911, because it was somebody else's responsibility.

We do this with God's priorities all the time. Someone else will be praying for my neighborhood. Someone else will be teaching the children's Sunday school. Someone else will give to the church budget. Someone else will share the gospel with my sister. Someone else will try to be kind to that lonely and difficult person at work. Someone else will give to Angel Tree. Someone else will build the habitat houses. Someone else will go on the mission field. Someone else will volunteer in the office. Someone else, someone else. Yes God, that's exciting what you are doing in the world. Send someone else to participate with you.

Mary's unique gift in this whole process is that she said yes to God. She said yes to God. She was willing to be involved. She was willing to believe that God had the power to do something that amazing. She was willing to obey and to live out whatever kind of life that called from her. She was willing to let God's plans for the world become God's individualized plan for her. Are you willing? Are you willing to be more than a guest in what God's doing in the world? Are you willing to be involved in the preparations for God's eternal party? It doesn't matter what are particular strengths and gifts are, because you know what its like to do a big event and this will be a big event. To be involved in a big event, you've got to have not just one person, but a lot of people involved and they use all kinds of different strengths to make it happen.

All kinds of gifts are needed. All kinds of people are needed. You are needed. You are uniquely placed. You are uniquely gifted to do something vital in someone else's life. You have been made to be in the game and not just to watch. And if we do get in the game, if we do use our gifts, if we are available, then who we are and what we do well gets all wrapped up in God's grace and becomes something bigger and more beautiful and more powerful than we could have ever imagined. So where are you? What are you uniquely positioned to do? What are you gifted to do? What are you willing to do? That can be here at church or it can be out where we live, where we work and where we play.

So, let me make a suggestion about this. I want you to be involved in great programs and staff things and all of that, but our first responsibility is to people, is to relationships. And so, perhaps in the next week or so you could take a look at where God has put you relationally. Who in a week are all of the people that you interact with? Make a list of the people that you interact with during the week and take that list and pray about it. And pray that God will give you some discernment and insight and start praying for a few on that list and try to think about what does this person need to hear or what does this person need to experience about God and how can I be a part of that. And maybe out of this prayerful discernment God can connect us in new ways with new opportunities. There is someone out there that you are uniquely gifted to bless.

Now. in a few hours, in fact in a half hour, millions of people are going to be sitting down to watch football and at about 2:30 I am going to be one of them. I am going to park in the chair in my basement and I am going to stay there until midnight tonight, because I am going to see the Saints tonight and I want to see them win. That's my last vestige of New Orleans; is that I have got to see them win. Ravens and then the Saints. Millions of people are going to watch, but only hundreds are going to play. That's fine with football, but that's not the way life works, that's not the way the church works, that's certainly not the way the Kingdom of God works. You were made to be in the game and not just to watch it.

We took a look at Mary today, this young girl with nothing special to offer to the human eye, but in her relationship with God there was something incredibly special that she was willing to give and that was her willingness to let God embrace her and invite her into his plan for the world. Now we are all over in terms of our spiritual experiences. Some of us here have never made that first response to God, which is a response to invite him in to a relationship with us, to accept his offer of relationship and forgiveness and certainly that is the first level of our response to God. It's to say yes to the forgiveness that he has offered us. Yes to the future, to become a guest in to this party. But many of us have made that sort of response to God a long time ago, but there is another response, more like Mary's response, where we already are in a fellowship with God, but now God is saying, "I want to get you in the game. I want to get you involved." And so maybe that is the decision that we need to make. Yes God, I am now willing in this area as you are calling me to get involved.

Maybe some of us have already responded to God a number of times like that, but you know there is always another call, another challenge and maybe now God is calling us to be a starter, first string, the one that gets out in front and takes a bigger risk. Wherever we are on that spectrum, there is something that God is calling for from us, even as he says to us that we are blessed and beloved and I want to give you my love and my grace. He also at the same time calls us into participating with him in blessing the rest of the world. So we are invited into a role in Jesus' plan. We are invited into a role in his kingdom. We are invited to a role at his party and because of God's plan people are going to be saved. Because of God's plan, lives that would end in disaster and would perish are going to be restored. Because of God's plan where there is injustice and hatred, there will be love. Where there is violence there will be kindness and compassion and service. Because of what God is doing history turns out right. Because of what God is doing, Jesus Christ is honored. Because of what God is doing, forever people will be able to praise and bless the mercy of God, millions upon millions and we can have a little bitty part in that and in my opinion that's real good news.

Let's pray. Wherever we are God, we pray for the openness of heart, for the discernment and sensitivity to know what it means to respond to your grace and to be invited into the work that you are doing in the world. Wherever we are, move us forward. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org