“We Can Do It!”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Texts: 1st Samuel 1:4-20, Ps. 113, Hebrews 10:11-25, Mark 13:1-8
Last week, elder Roberta Emerick brought a marvelous idea to our Session—our church governing board. Roberta, working with Tom Coan on our outreach and evangelism efforts, proposes that we organize a workshop, a seminar, or lecture series focusing on the needs, the concerns, and the questions of those she calls, “The Walking Wounded.” So many people out there walking around with broken hearts and broken health. So many people living with stress, and stressed out by living. . . . So many folks grieving the loss of loved ones, and the absence of love itself . . . . So many confronting medical maladies and family friction . . . . So many lonely, hurt, despairing folks. So many who qualify as “Walking Wounded” . . . . So let’s organize an event that will be honest about human suffering---ours, theirs, the suffering of humankind. Let’s go public with our awareness of the anguish all around us, and let’s go public with the hope we have in God!
From the pages of Holy Scripture I hear a woman named Hannah, shouting out, ‘Right on, Roberta!’
Hannah’s been there. Been in the miry bog, the pit of despair. As our Older Testament story begins today Hannah is barren. That’s a harsh word to describe a bitter plight. For women in the biblical world, infertility is as bad as it gets. It’s a sign of disgrace. It is grounds for divorce. It pushes a woman to the outer margins of society, and even beyond. Hannah’s family—as families often do--rubs salt in her wounds. There is the conceited husband who tells his wife, ‘Hey, look at me, I’m worth 10 sons.’ There is the equivalent of a cruel sister-in-law, fertile but jealous, who never looses an opportunity to remind Hannah of her childlessness. Hannah goes to church, gets on her knees to pray for God’s help, only to be accused of being drunk by an incredibly insensitive pastor.
All of this makes Hannah a charter member of the “Walking Wounded” club. No doubt Hannah’s “been there, done that,” but she also has an extraordinary “story to tell to the nations.” Hannah is one of six, previously barren women in the Bible who experience the miraculous birth of child. Now, given three thousand years of Biblical history this is a demographically insignificant number. Even so, it is enough to make the divine will known. That sacred purpose is clearly stated in today’s psalm:
God raises the poor from the dust,
and lifts the needy from the ash heap. . . .
God gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children. Ps. 113.7,9
The “Walking Wounded” in our community need to hear these words of hope. Need to hear the divine assurance that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the steadfast, never stopping love of God.
Now, to pull this off . . . . To bring Roberta’s idea to fruition . . . . To put together an event that will be inviting, hopefully even compelling to a significant number of people . . . . To promote this event to the larger community . . . . To insure that our facilities are in top shape to receive company . . . . Well, it will take money. Not much—“church folks work cheap”—but it will take some money. The Session will have to have confidence that it can hammer out a budget that will provide the funds. Funds for this event, plus, what we hope and pray will be a week-long, faith-shaping mission trip for our youth group. Plus, funds to support our work with our new mission partner— St. Anne’s Halfway House for Women. Funds to insure we don’t forget our other mission partners— like the Presbytery; First Light, the women’s shelter downtown; and, Habitat for Humanity.
Plus, Session will have to be confident our budget for 2007 can support and sustain our marvelous music ministry, plus our new part-time youth director. As always, these lovely but aging buildings will be crying out for attention. Then there is the pastor and the church secretary, and the rising cost of medical insurance. No doubt about it--it all cost money. Not much by the standards of government, industry and commerce, but it takes some money from each of us so that all of us may proclaim together, what Jesus is telling the world today: “That we can hope for more than we have yet seen.”
7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs (Mark 13).
What you see, Jesus says, is just the beginning, it is not the end. The suffering you see, the disease you battle, the pain you feel, the loss you experience, the loneliness you endure—this is not the end. It is just the beginning— the beginning of the new heaven and the new earth God is creating. Whatever it is; whatever uncertainty; whatever worry or doubt or pain or hurt is not permanent. Remember, “This too shall pass.” I know it feels like it’s going to go on forever. But Jesus says, “What is permanent is yet to come. What will endure for all generations is yet to be?
But when, Mr. Preacher? When will it be?
“Soon,” says our text from Hebrews, ‘Soon our enemies and God’s enemies—will be reduced a mere footstool for Christ, our representative from God and to God, who sits today at God’s right hand.’
Friends, we cannot sit on this good news while--all around us--wounded people are barely making it. We cannot hoard this extraordinary good news while all around us and even within us, there is pain and anguish, misery and uncertainty. We’ve got to get out and proclaim to the world God’s promise for more than the status quo, more than the current dim prospects, more than present pain. We’ve got to translate this ancient language—promises for a new heaven and new earth . . . Translate this language into words this generation will understand. It is nothing less than a sacred pledge to us for the here and now from the one who was, and is, and is to come—a sacred pledge for peace at home and abroad, for health and wholeness, for love and mercy and kindness. And we can do it!
But how can a little ole church like ours do something big like a “Walking Wounded” event, like sending our kids on a mission trip halfway across the country? How can we do it?
Well, we’ll just have to “provoke” each other!
Do what? Provoke each other? Are you kidding? That’s exactly what we thought good church folks were to try to avoid doing. Provoking each other! Has the preacher lost his mind?
Don’t blame me. I’m just quoting scripture. Listen again to our excerpt from Hebrews: “And let us consider how to provoke one another—provoke one another—to love and good deeds . . . .” Provoke, as in challenge one another . . . . As in a ‘swift kick in the rear.’ Let us provoke one another to love and good deeds.
My dear sisters and bothers, I hope you have been duly “provoked” by Pat Wittig’s moving testimonies about how meaningful this little congregation has been to her and to her family. I hope you have been “provoked” by a phone call from a Session member asking you to prayerfully consider making a faithful pledge today to the ministries of this church. I hope you have been “provoked” by Roberta’s vision for reaching out to the “Walking Wounded.” “Provoked” by our vision for doing missions in Christ’s name.
But if by chance you have been missed by the messengers, or if by chance, the message itself has missed you, let me “provoke” you right here and right now.
We can do marvelous things. We can do far more than we have been accustomed to doing. Why, we can strive “to serve as Christ has served us.” We can walk by faith, not by sight. We can hope for what we have yet seen.” And we can share this eternal hope with others if, by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we will step out in faith and in love, and pledge our financial support to the ministries of this congregation.
Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine, to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Ephesians 3:20, 21