SERMON: "Too Insignificant For God to Use?"

"Too Insignificant For God to Use?"
Matthew 25:14-30

(This is the first sermon I shared at Maple Grove UMC after being appointed the lead pastor there. I decided not to change much of the opening because I thought it might strike some chords with other churches and clergy who have had or will have the experience.)
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“It’s good to be with you!”  I’ve been waiting to say that to you for several weeks now.  Actually, I’ve been preparing myself to say it to you.  I cannot tell you how many times these last few weeks persons have asked me, “Are you excited about your new appointment?”  Or, said something to me like, “I’ll bet you’re excited about your move and going back to Columbus.”

I have to admit to you that excitement wasn’t the most dominant feeling I experienced these past few weeks. I was too busy finishing too many things – there were too many people grieving all around me for me to be excited about leaving them – and there was my own grief about leaving.  As a result I usually responded to persons who tried to have a conversation with me about my feelings with words like: “I’m sure I’ll be excited once I get to Maple Grove but I can’t think about there right now.  There’s just too much to do here and too much pain around saying good-bye to a people, a church and a community, that I’ve loved and ministered to and with for almost 17 years between my two times in town.”  And usually the person who had started the conversation would knowingly nod their head as they turned and walked away.

I know it’s been the same for many of you here this morning these past few weeks. To say you’ve been excited about Dorothy’s and my coming while at the same time being in pain about having to say goodbye to Joel and Emily has had to have been as difficult as what we’ve gone through. Looking forward to the coming of those who are to replace ones you love has not been your primary focus and that’s as it should have been.

And so, here we are this morning – two grieving families, thrown together to minister to one another and with one another – grieving, and yet with a growing sense of excitement and optimism about our future together.

And so, I say to you again, “It’s good to be with you!”  I am excited about being one of your pastors and about all the excitement many of you have already shared with me about who you already are as a community of faith and who you hope and believe you will become.

One further word I need to share with you before I reflect with you on today’s Gospel is a word of thanks. The rest of your staff and many of the rest of you have gone out of your way to help Dorothy and me feel welcome.  The parsonage is in great shape and the meals have been simply wonderful!  You are truly a hospitable church and we are glad to be with you.

Let us pray.
Now, mid-year moves are always a bit more difficult than the ones that take place in June and July.  And late fall moves have to be the most difficult of all.   And do you know why that is?  Well, it has to do with why June and July moves themselves happen when they do.  You see, June and July moves allow pastors and people time to get acquainted, to become somewhat comfortable with one another before the fall stewardship campaign and the pastor has to talk about money matters.

Do you know how relieved I was to find out that last Sunday, the Sunday before my first Sunday, was the last Sunday of the stewardship campaign?  Do you know how grateful I was that Laurie (Clark) had to deal with it? The thought that crossed my mind when I read the news in the Maple Grove newsletter was, “Whew! Great, I don’t have to go in there my first Sunday and talk about money!”

Well, imagine my reaction when I first read the lectionary Gospel reading for this morning:  “You have got to be kidding!  What are they going to think of me if I talk about this one on my first Sunday?”   And I almost gave in to the temptation to scrap the lectionary and choose one of my favorite portions of scripture so that I could resurrect an old sermon that perhaps had been well received in the past.

But as I continued to struggle with the text and pray about what God would have me share with you the text just sort of came alive and I began to see it in a different light.  As a result some central things I believe about the Christian journey of faith – some things I want you to know about what I believe about God and us were revealed.

The experience affirmed for me again, like it has so many times in my ministry, the value of using the lectionary as a guide for the development of our weekly time together.  Here’s the way I like to explain my commitment to utilizing the lectionary.  Years ago a group of church leaders from many Christian denominations got together and talked about how helpful they thought it would be if despite our differences of styles of worship and theological emphasis we all would read the same passages of scripture each week and if we read from various parts of the Bible so that we all became more knowledgeable about the different parts of the Bible.

As a result these church leaders and others down through the years developed a three-year cycle of scripture readings with selections from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the letters and from one of the Gospels.  I use the lectionary because I believe it keeps me honest as a preacher and it disciplines me both as a preacher and as a Christian - it makes me deal with passages I might otherwise avoid like the one suggested for today.

Now, you’ll find that I like to talk about the positive characteristics of God – things like the fact that God loves everyone of us unconditionally, like a good parent does – things like God is a gracious God, slow to anger, ever reaching out to us – things like God forgives and is merciful.  I will tend to downplay, ignore, perhaps even avoid images of the legalistic, judgmental, harsh, vengeful God sometimes portrayed in the scriptures.  That’s why a superficial reading of today’s parable would create in me the temptation to look somewhere else for the morning message.  A quick read of today’s Gospel leaves one feeling that Jesus is suggesting to those listening to him that God is like a harsh, greedy, impatient, compassionless master – that God is someone we should live in fear of and someone who expects a lot from us.

But, a closer look at the parable I believe reveals something more positive about God.  And that is, that it doesn’t matter what our abilities are - whether they are great or limited – God still gives us, entrusts us with, valuable things and God expects us to put what we’ve been entrusted with to the best possible use we can.

William Willimon, one-time chaplain at Duke University and a retired Bishop in the UMC, put it this way in one of his sermons: “If nothing were at stake, the master would not be upset.  But, something great is at stake.  For reasons not made known in the parable, it is clear that the master relies upon the slave and that even his single talent is crucial to the master’s estate.  This is like the Kingdom of God, Jesus says.  To each, something is given, whether small or great.  But each is trusted and each is needed.” (1)

Friends, we are all gifted by God.  All that we are and all that we have God has given us to use for the furthering of God’s kingdom – for the nurturing of God’s people and the care of God’s universe.  Who we are and what we have is God’s gift to us.  How we use what God has provided us is our gift to God.

Now, let me offer a little mini-sermon within the sermon.  It’s a freebie – there won’t be a second offering taken for it.  Suppose the five-talent slave and the one-talent slave were switched in the parable.  I mean, suppose the slave who was entrusted with five talents was the one who dug the hole and hid his master’s money and the slave who was entrusted with the one talent went and traded with it and made an additional talent.  Would that have changed the master’s reaction?  I don’t think so.  I think the master still would have been mad at the slave who did nothing with what he had given him and happy with the slave who used their gift or gifts to make more for him.  In fact, my sense is the master might have even been a little hotter if it had been the slave he’d entrusted with more because he believed that slave had more ability to get something done with the gifts he gave him.

The point is friends that we are all gifted by God and God wants us to make the most of the gifts that have been given us no matter how insignificant we believe those gifts to be.  There is no gift – no amount of money, no skill, no talent, no hobby, no amount of time that God cannot use.  None of us is too insignificant to be used by God.

There’s a story about a man who belonged to a church in the Boston area who once thought to himself: “There’s no way I can speak in public.  And a lot of the Christian acts of service others seem comfortable doing, I’m uncomfortable doing.   But, I like to cook and I’m really comfortable talking with a small group of people and I think I’m pretty empathetic toward those who feel lonely.  I wonder how I could put those realities about myself to work for God.” (2)  And he looked around and he prayed about it and he decided to invite the young men attending a nearby college who were away from home to join him for dinner.  And so each night he sat two extra places at his table and invited two of the students to join him.

Several years later news of his death got back to a couple of the young men who had become his friends at those nightly meals.  Since the funeral was to be in a town some distance away, they decided to rent a bus and invite others who had benefited from the hospitality of the man.

Over 150 persons responded to the invitation to go and honor the man who had influenced many of their decisions to become Christians while they sat around his dinner table.

The ability to cook – the ability to emphasize with those who are lonely – a comfortableness with sharing with others in a small group - too insignificant to be used by God?  Not hardly.

Several years ago I went with twelve lay people and members of the Lima Trinity staff to visit a United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama – Frazer Memorial.  It changed my ministry and the ministry of Trinity.  Frazer had become well-known for their effectiveness in emphasizing that every member is a minister.  One of the things that created in me the interest in going was a little book written by the Lead Pastor, Ed Mathison, about their story.  In this little book are stories about some of the people who got turned on to this idea that they were a minister.  I suppose my favorite story is one about a woman who lived 50 miles away from the church whose primary contact with the church was the weekly worship service on TV.  You see, she was a shut-in and unable to get to church.  Well, despite her inability to attend she wanted to do something to help and to express her appreciation and excitement about the ministries of the church. She said that the only gift she could think of to use from 50 miles away in a bed was letter writing.  She wrote the church and asked for permission to write a letter to every new member who joined the church to encourage them to become involved in some specific ministry.

That’s not the end of her story though.  While she thought her ministry was insignificant, it had an enormous effect on each of the new members. Many of them stated that it was the letter from her that motivated them to seek out their own ministry.  One of them volunteered to write letters to shut-ins and the hospitalized because she knew she was just too shy and would just be too uncomfortable to get involved in a lot of the possible ministries.

Letter writing – too insignificant for God to use?  Nope.

One of my best friends in ministry was Deb Campbell.  She passed away a few years ago after a heroic fight with cancer.  Before her death, Deb was the conference staff person who provided leadership to the Servant Leadership ministries of our conference – she lived, she modeled Servant Leadership.  One of the stories she often told was about a small rural church in our conference whose minister helped people get started on this journey of serving with the gifts God provides by simply asking them when they joined the church what they enjoyed doing and then said to them, “Well, take a look around and begin to dream about ways you can use that through the church.”

The lay pastor of our church used that approach a couple of years ago after a new member said, “Oh, I can’t do anything.  I don’t have any skills the church can use.”  When Jean asked her what she really liked to do, Bev started talking about how much she enjoyed working on her yard, planting flowers and shrubs.  Frankly, there wasn’t much happening on the outside of the Trinity building at the time.  Landscaping had obviously been neglected, unlike here I’ve noticed.  But, you should see the place now.  And over 20 persons have volunteered each of the last three years to add their enjoyment of caring for flowers and plants to hers.

Planting flowers?  Watering flowers?  Weeding flower beds?  Too insignificant for God to use?  I don’t think so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has work to do in this world and God has placed within us, entrusted with us, the gifts to get the work done.  I would challenge each of us to ask ourselves if there are gifts God has given us that God wants to use, needs to use, that are unavailable because we’ve buried them somewhere because of a fear that we will fail or that they are too insignificant for God to use.

We are truly Christ’s hands and God needs us to be the ministers we’ve agreed to be once we’ve said yes to being followers of Jesus Christ.  None of us is insignificant – nor are our gifts, our skills, our talents or our material resources.
 
1.  William Willimon,  Pulpit Resource (November, 2002), p. 30.

(Within a few months a group of lay members and staff of Maple Grove embarked on the same trip to Frazier and now utilize the same structure for ministry.)

SERMON: "Are We Ready?"

Are We Ready?
Matthew 25:1-13

Everyone's familiar with David Letterman’s Top Ten lists. He shared a list one night of the top ten things you should say if you are caught sleeping at your desk.  I’m only going to share a few of them. # 10 was: “They told me at the blood bank this might happen.”  Excuse # 8 was: “Whew!  Guess I left the top off the White-Out.  You probably got here just in time!”  Excuse # 4 was: “Darn!  Why did you interrupt me?  I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem.”  The # 1 best thing to say if you get caught napping at your desk was: “. . . in the name of Jesus, Amen.”

The late humorist and author Lewis Grizzard was in the hospital preparing to have open-heart surgery the next morning.  His minister stopped to see him.  Grizzard confessed to his minister that he had not exactly been a paragon of virtue and asked if there were still time to repent.

The minister looked at his watch and replied, “Yes, but I’d hurry if I were you.” (1)

The passage of scripture I'm considering in this sermon blog concerns how we should approach the end, the second coming of Christ.  The point is not the knowledge of when but the wisdom of being in a state of readiness.

Before I get into the details of the story, let me note here in the beginning that the kind of waiting we are to do is not a kind of pausing of our lives – a being frozen in time like when we play the childhood game of “statues.”  Rather, it’s a waiting by living a certain kind of life. (2)

Once again Jesus used the well-known image of a wedding to illustrate his point.  Now, there are a few things we need to know about first-century Palestinian weddings in order to really grasp the message Jesus wanted to impart.

Basically, it all started with the betrothal.  During this stage the marriage contract was negotiated and signed by the parents of the bride and groom.  Now, while there are some similarities between a betrothal and our engagement period, believe me when I say that a betrothal was a whole lot more involved.  For one thing, it was much more legally binding.  The only way to end it was the legal action of divorce.

Then, came the formal religious ceremony – held in the bride’s home, sometimes even a year later.

Finally, the feast - the banquet - the reception - was held.  Now, according to some bible scholars, this happened at the groom’s house, usually at night, and it lasted about seven days.  The bride and groom didn’t go on a honeymoon.  They stayed in their new home and all the community came and greeted them and offered them their congratulations.  They were treated like a prince and princess during that week.  You see, it wasn’t only the banquet the bridesmaids missed out on, it was that whole week of festivities.

But, it’s when all this took place that we need to note.  Again, according to some bible scholars, it could happen right after the religious ceremony or it could happen weeks later.  It happened whenever the groom decided things were ready and he wanted it to.  The uncertainty of when it was going to happen was part of the excitement.  Part of the fun was also the trying on the part of the groom to catch some of the bridal party – the bridesmaids, the attendants - sleeping – not ready. (Why was that considered fun? I have no idea! It makes about as much sense as some of the things wedding parties and family and friends do today in an attempt to embarrass or make things difficult for a bride and groom on their honeymoon. The clothes in Dorothy's overnight suitcase were tied in knots and rice littered the motel floor as a result of her opening it the first time!)

Once the groom arrived where the bride was they would begin to walk down the street to their reception with the bridesmaids lighting the way with the light in their lamps.  It was considered a major faux pax for them not to be by the side of the road with their lamps lit ready to welcome the couple. (3)

Apparently when the 10 bridesmaids reached the place where they were to welcome the groom, they settled down for the wait, became drowsy, and fell asleep.  When a voice proclaimed that the groom was approaching, five (referred to as “foolish”) of them discovered that they were low on oil and had to run off to buy some.  By the time the groom’s group, including the 5 “wise” bridesmaids, got to the place of the wedding reception, the foolish ones found themselves locked out.  Their shout of “Lord, Lord, open the door” was answered with words that send a chill down my spine every time I hear or read them, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”

This is another one of those parables that causes me to cringe.  Some of the things in it make me uncomfortable.  I tend to like the parables Jesus told that reveal God as this gracious, arms wide-open, always inviting, loving king.  I like the stories that call me to task for excluding others, that challenge my image of who’s going to be included.  You know the ones I’m talking about: like the prodigal son story, where the wild and crazy and selfish child runs away with his inheritance and blows it all only to return to his party-throwing dad – like the vineyard scene one where all the hired help get the same pay even though they worked different lengths of time – like the parables that tell us about God’s grace and the wonderful kingdom God has prepared for even those we don’t think deserve it.  I like the parables that provide comfort and hope for all of us.

But this one: with 5 bridesmaids refusing to help their sisters who are short on oil – with its tightly shut door keeping some from enjoying the party – with its seeming lack of grace – its seeming lack of sympathy symbolized by the bridegroom’s words to the oil-deficient bridesmaids – what do we make of this one?  How do we deal with this one with all else we believe to be important and to be true about a gracious God and an inclusive kingdom?

Again, we need to remember that a parable has only one purpose – one central idea or teaching that it is trying to convey.  Everything else in the parable is an attempt to illuminate that one point.  The primary purpose Jesus told this parable for was to contrast the result of being ready and not being ready – it was and is to challenge believers to be prepared despite the lack of knowledge about when Christ is going to come again.

So, when we read about the five “wise” bridesmaids refusing to supply some of their extra oil to the five “foolish” bridesmaids we need to ask “why?” in light of this central purpose of the parable.  We know why according to the real life situation: the wedding party could not continue on their way if they had no lit lamps.  The wedding would be ruined.  It was the responsibility of the bridesmaids to provide light.  They dared not risk sharing their oil with the irresponsible ones or they would have failed to fulfill the role they were asked to.

The lack of charity is not to be paid attention to.  The intent of it is not to contradict everything else we have been taught about the appropriateness of helping persons in need.  This is not a parable about caring for one another.  It’s a parable about the importance of being ready.  Thus the point of the bridesmaids’ response, interpreted in light of this central purpose, is to reveal that when it comes to the journey of faith, there are simply some things we can’t do for one another – some things we can’t receive from one another – some things we have to develop, come to, decide, accept, on our own.

We cannot live off of the faith of another: we can encourage – we can draw strength from – we can learn from – but, in the final analysis, our faith has to be our own.  We are responsible for our own obedience.  It simply is not possible to be ready for Christ’s return – eternal life – because of a spouse’s or a parent’s or a brother’s or a sister’s faith.  There has to come a time in every one of our lives when we make our own affirmation of faith – we decide for ourselves to follow Christ – when we no longer believe or live it out because someone else is living it out.  There comes a day in our lives when we do good because it’s our response in faith – when we act based on our own beliefs about being a follower of Jesus Christ’s – when we practice spiritual disciplines because we want to strengthen our relationship with God and not because others have told us we ought to.

The oil in our lives is not something we get so much of and then we store it away and only wait – ignoring that which produced the oil in our lives in the first place.  We store up oil in our lives so we can use it while we are waiting.  It’s an ongoing process.  We obtain it – we find it – we get turned on to its presence in our lives when we make a part of our lives some of the spiritual disciplines.  Sharing and living by faith – praying for others – reading and studying the scriptures – obeying the teachings of Christ – ministering to and with God’s people are all spiritual disciplines which help keep us full with the oil that symbolizes our being ready.  Just as the bridesmaids’ duty in the Palestinian wedding was to be ready to begin the procession upon the arrival of the groom, so the duty of the Christian is to live one’s entire life prepared to give an accounting to Christ at any moment.  It is both the doing and the being – the receiving and the giving – the growing and the sowing – the loving and the serving - that marks our readiness.

And so, the question we ask ourselves and our churches is: “Are we ready?”  Are we using the opportunities and the resources God provides us to ready ourselves?  Are we making the most out of that which God has given us or are we wasting our time trying to figure out when it’s all going to come down?

Parables about Christ’s return are not intended to produce in us fear about what’s going to happen when Christ returns.  The purpose of the parables about Christ’s return are to instruct us about how we are to go about living our lives until his return.  It’s about being ready – about being prepared – about actively waiting.


1.  Rev. Johnny Dean, “The Scariest Sound in the World,” www.sermons.com.
2.  Emphasis, “On High Alert,” November/December, 2005, p. 12.
3.  Arland Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2000), 170-171.