3 Epiphany C January 27, 2013
Annual Meeting
RIC Sunday
Luther Memorial Lutheran Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Nehemiah 8:1-10 + Psalm 19 + 1 Cor. 12: 12-31a + Luke 4: 14-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Regardless of how I have voted, I am always captivated, along with many others in our nation, by the festivities of the Inauguration of the President of the United States. For the record, the first inauguration I remember watching was Richard Nixon. And on Monday I was once again captivated by the pageantry of the day…the speeches and the poetry; the songs and the parades; the iconic images from the celebration. I heard one commentator note that what we see from one inauguration to the next is the evolution of society in four year’s time. One image, as the first family awaited the arrival of the parade, showed all of the Obama family on their smart phones…checking messages, texting, and the girls taking pictures of their mom and dad.
Throughout the day, though, many commentators noted the diversity of the crowd. There were people of every race and nation, of every sexual orientation and every political persuasion. And, arguably for the first time, all were welcome and all were equal. It was remarkable.
This is not a political statement, by any means. I like to believe that we would have reached this point as a society regardless….that the will of the people, particularly our young people, would have propelled us to this point, where diversity is the norm, not the exception.
But this vision is nothing new. In the letter to the church at Corinth, which we read as our second reading today, Paul had a similar vision. Paul writes using a rich metaphor to describe how vitally important all people are in the Body of Christ. In fact, he uses the metaphor of a body. And all parts, all members, of the body are vital. Hands, feet, ears, eyes…one is not more important than the other. Each has a task, a role they play in the body.
On this day, in the midst of this text that reminds us of how the radical inclusivity of the Gospel is crucial to the body, we come together to celebrate the many diverse gifts present in this body.
Today we will gather at our Annual Party, or Annual Meeting, whichever term you choose. Let’s go with Celebration of Ministry. It’s our Annual Celebration of Ministry, a time when we will give thanks for all that has happened in the past year and look ahead to see where the Holy Spirit has called us to do the work of ministry. And we will give thanks for the variety of gifts that have been at work as we carry out our mission in the world, as we Actively Share Christ’s Love in Community.
The gifts are many….they are present here in so many ways and they work together as Paul described to the Corinthians. We celebrate in this place the gifts of prayer ministry, hospitality, music, worship leadership, community involvement, study, administration, and more. There are hands and feet and eyes and ears, to use Paul’s metaphor.
We sing and say frequently that All Are Welcome here, and we embrace that with love. But we temper it with the understanding that welcoming all people does not mean welcoming behaviors and actions that divide the Body. Paul also spoke of this often and with great vehemence to the early churches. And that’s a tricky thing, because in our great diversity, we ARE different from one another. Yet, we strive to act and serve and live together in ways that build up the Body and further our mission, not in ways that divide it or that require all of our energy simply to tend to the conflict. So we welcome in love and we speak correctively with love and we celebrate our ministries with love.
At this time I invite you all to take the ribbon you received when you came into worship this morning and to gather either a pencil from the pew in front of you or a pen or pencil from your bag. I’d like for you to think about what you bring to this body. What gift to do you share to enable our ministries to thrive? You all do something! Maybe it’s a friendly smile and a encouraging word on Sunday morning. Maybe you serve on a committee or teach Sunday School or send cards in the mail. Whatever it is, I invite you to write that on one side of your ribbon. I realize that the writing will be light but only you need to know it’s there. And, on the other side, I invite you to write something with which you struggle. As an example, my ribbon says that I bring as my gift my love of singing and I bring as my struggle my tendency to forget to trust God to be in charge. As the sermon continues, please feel free to complete this exercise, but do complete it, because in a few moments we will collect all of our ribbons.
In the first reading today, we have a story from the book of Nehemiah, written at a time and in a place where not everyone could gather in every place. There were many laws against people who were different from or other than, including women and children. The large wall that would have surrounded cities in these days and time had different gates in the wall which were used for different purposes. Not everyone was welcome at every gate. The gate where the water could be supplied was one of the few gates where all people were welcome to gather. And that is why it is noted that both men and women were present for the reading of the book of the law of Moses. The Scripture is read from early morning until midday and the people respond with great Amens and the lifting up of their hands. Might I just add that if at any time you wish to add an Amen to our Scripture reading or the hearing of the sermon, feel free to do so!
And after this great diverse gathering of folks has heard Scripture read, they go to a party. They go to eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send to go boxes to the folks who couldn’t be there.
This is exactly what we gather to do today. We gather for a party…a celebration….we will gather around the table of the LORD in our worship and we will gather and share the abundance of the meal we have all provided for later at our Annual Celebration of Ministry. We will celebrate the particular gifts of our dear Mary, as she used them well as our Visitation Minister, as she used them with her work in Mexico, and as she will continue to use them. And we give thanks for the way that God is revealed to us…in the heavens as they declare the glory of God, in the way the days and nights tell their tales, in the teaching of the Lord, and in this body, gathered in its glorious diversity, yet all working together to live into our ministry as we understand it and as we claim it in our mission statement: Actively Sharing Christ’s Love in Community.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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