A Life Worth Leading†                        Pastor Sue Briner                                           Esther 4:12-17

Ministry—The Process of Involvement                                                           1Corinthians 12:4-11

October 7, 2007                                                                                                 Matthew 22:34-40 

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I am a jigsaw puzzle fanatic.

            I have been doing puzzles for years –

                        And the more challenging they are,

                                    The more I enjoy them.

Are any of you puzzle fans?

I’ve done 5000 piece puzzles,

3D puzzles,

                        Puzzles without borders,

And puzzles without any box tops to guide you.

And the latest way to feed my obsession      

            Without taking up the whole kitchen table,

                        Is with computer puzzles.

A guy I knowwrote his own software with a twist.

            He has what he calls Living Scenes puzzles,

                        And what makes them so interesting

                                    Is that they move and have sound.

For instance, there is a waterfall,

            Where you can hear and see the water

                        Crashing over the rocks below.

So as you’re assembling the puzzle,

            The individual pieces have movement in them,

                        But you have to put them together to see what the picture is all about.

Today you each received a puzzle piece when you came in,

            And Bali did a great job introducing today’s topic in our series,

                        Which is ministry.

The last few weeks we have been looking at key ways

            That we can grow in our relationship with God and with one another,

                        Through the practices of worship, fellowship and discipleship.

This week, we begin to look outward at God’s mission in the world,

            And our part in it.

I’ve talked before about how

God has a mission to bless and save the world.

            He will complete His work when Christ comes again,

                        And establishes His unending kingdom.

                                   That’s why we pray in the Lord’s prayer

                                               “Thy kingdom come.”

But what does God’s kingdom look like?

            Well, God doesn’t exactly hand us the box top,

                        But He describes it in different ways in Scripture.

God’s  kingdom

            Has opposite values

                        From the kingdoms of this world.

In our world, power and riches and honor and fame

Are concentrated at the top,

                        Whether they be with rulers of countries, or corporations,

                                    Professional athletes or celebrities.

                                                He who has the gold makes the rules,

                                                            And might makes right.

So our goal in society is to move up the pyramid as far as we can

            By looking out for ourselves,

                        By acquiring titles and status symbols,

                                    By getting others to serve us.

Those at the bottom are outsiders, outcasts;

            And that’s no place we want to be.

But then there’s God’s kingdom

Which we might think of as an upside down kingdom.

In the Old Testament,

God speaks of an everlasting kingdom of justice and of righteousness, (Isaiah 6:9)

                        And peace (wholeness, health, restored relationships).

                                    Where there will be no more death, and no more grieving (Isaiah 25:7-8)

Mary, the mother of Jesus,

            Describes it in her song we call The Magnificat. (Luke 1:47-55)

She says it is a place where the proud and the powerful

            Of this world are brought low,

                        And the lowly are lifted up.

                                    Those who are hungry are filled with good things,

                                                And the rich are sent away empty.

Jesus talks about God’s Kingdom as the place

            Where the captives and the oppressed are set free,

                        The blind receive sight. (Luke 4:18-19)

The poor, the meek, the merciful, those who mourn,

            Those who suffer for the sake of Jesus (Matt. 5:3-11 , Luke 6:20-26)

                        And the very people who are devalued or rejected by the world;

                                    The outcasts – lepers, tax collectors, those with disabilities,

Prostitutes, prisoners, foreigners.

                                                               Are the ones who are welcomed with open arms

                                                                        And are given the highest places of honor.

And the leader of this kingdom, we hear,

            “Came not to be served, but to serve,

                        And to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28)

                                    The Lord of all is also servant of all,

                                                And gives himself away for the sake of the world. 

So throughout the Bible,

            God gives His people, us,

                        A picture of what the kingdom will look like one day

And then He invites us to be a part of His mission

            And His kingdom right now.

God doesn’t need our help,

                                    But He wants our help.

He wants to join us together to make one of those living scenes puzzles

            So that through us the rest of the world

Can begin to get a picture of what God’s upside down kingdom is all about.

In Ephesians (2:8-10) Paul says:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith,

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—

Not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are what [God] has made us,

Created in Christ Jesus for good works,

Which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

We were saved by God’s grace

             So that we could do good works.

                        That was God’s plan for us all along.

In today’s gospel,

            Jesus tells the disciples that those good works

                        That we do in this kingdom are to:

Love God (which is worship)

And love our neighbor,

            Which is what ministry is all about.

God created us to love our neighbors

And each of us has a part to play in this picture.

            Ministry is not just the job of the pastor and staff,

                        But of ALL the baptized people of God.

But how do we figure out how it is that we fit in

            To this living scene that is God’s kingdom?

Well, we begin by looking at what God has given to each of us.

Take your puzzle piece and examine it for a moment.

            Look at the colors, and the pattern on it.

                        It’s not like anyone else’s piece;

                                    It is unique, just like you are.

God created us with certain abilities, gifts and passions.

Every one of us has some!

In today’s second lesson from 1^st Corinthians Paul talks about

            A variety of gifts, some of which include wisdom, healing,

And so on.

God gave us these gifts and abilities

            To be used in service for the common good.

                        To be used as part of that living scene

                                    Of God’s kingdom.

Some of us have gifts in encouragement or compassion,

            In teaching or in giving guidance to others.

                        Others of us have gifts of prayer or hospitality.

We may have the ability to be a big picture thinker,

            Or a detail-oriented person.

                        We may enjoy working with others,

                                    Or we may do better alone.

Some of us have a passion for the environment,

            Others love children.

We hear from St. Paul that no one gift is better than any of other,

And God has designed it so that all our gifts and abilities

                        Are useful for showing people what God’s kingdom is like.

If you’re not sure what your gifts, abilities and passions are,

            I encourage you to go to the gifts workshop

                        Or fill out the assessment that the gifted to serve team

                                    Has created.

                                                As a good first step in discovering how you fit in.

The other thing that we don’t often think about as useful for this,

            Are our experiences, and particularly our painful ones.

God doesn’t cause those experiences,

            But God doesn’t waste them, either.

Think about how the ARK, Angel Wings, and the Mental Illness support group got started.

            They all grew out of painful experiences

Of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s,

            Losing babies,

Dealing with mental illness personally.

God used those experiences

            Because the people who lived through them were open to it.

                        Out of them were born healing ministries that are powerful witnesses

                                    To God’s kingdom.

And when we allow God to use our gifts and experiences

            To show others what His kingdom is all about

                        We will find that our lives have significance and purpose.

                                    There is tremendous joy in serving others

With the gifts we have received.

Now, there are many places that we can use our gifts.

            We often think of church first --

                        And that’s really important.

                                    For we are all part of the household of God,

                                                So we each have a role to play here at St. Luke’s.

I hope that you will join us at the ministry fair

            To discover how

You can plug in to serve here at St. Luke’s

But that’s not the only way we serve.

            God gives us our gifts to be used at home, at school, in our work, in our community,

                        In whatever situation we find ourselves.

In today’s first lesson, we hear about Esther,

            A poor Jewish girl who was taken from her home

And made into a Queen of Persia.

Now, Esther could have complained that is wasn’t her choice.

Or she could have simply used her position to benefit herself.

But instead, she was open to being used by God.

            So she put her gifts of beauty and charm to work

                        And God used her to save God’s people.   

Now think about yourself and your gifts, abilities, passions and experiences.

            What are you doing with them?

                        How might you use them to give people a picture of God’s kingdom?

I want to challenge you to take a  moment to write down

            Your 3 strongest gifts, abilities, passions or experiences.

                        (You can use the sermon notes section in your insert)

Then pray that God would open your heart and mind,

            And direct your will to use those gifts to help others see

What God’s kingdom is all about.

                                    You will be blessed as you are a blessing to others.