Monday, March 24, 2014

Sermon presented at Ann Bolek's ordination

A woman was asked to be on consistory, she agreed, but when she attended her first meeting, she realized there was no president.  After some discussion, no one stepped forward to take the position.  So the pastor did something that she thought was a little strange.  She said, “lets pray.”  So everyone bowed their heads and sat there around the table, while the pastor prayed for God to call someone to be the president.

During the prayer the woman started to hear or maybe think the words; you should do this, she said to herself, “but I don’t want to.” The words came again, you can do this; she answered, “I know I can, but I should wait a year and see how this works”. But, that silent voice / thoughts within her head continued.  She finally just yelled out, “OK I will be the president.”

Following the meeting the pastor came up to her and said, “you were called by God.”  She answered, “I don’t think so.”  But on her way home she started to think about it. It occurred to her that maybe she really was called by God - and she was terrified!

God’s call can be terrifying.  Just the realization that God knows you, and singles you out can be very unnerving.  Knowing that you are not just one of the many in a crowd, but you really are someone unique. That you actually have a gift and God is calling you share it, can sometimes be too much to comprehend.

Today’s text from Corinthians is a reminder that we all have been given gifts to serve God and each of us are called to use those gifts.  Just like the women in the story, every once in a while God calls us to use those gifts for a specific ministry. And every once in while God calls people to the ministry of an ordained pastor. As we sit here today, there is no question God called Ann for this purpose.

Now we all know a call from God is journey. It is a life long journey. And it doesn’t matter if your call is to be the president of consistory, to pray for others, maintain the building, teach Sunday School, or to help in the kitchen God calls us to use our gifts on our faith journey. 

As we continue on our journey, we may discover gifts we didn’t know we had. We also may find what we thought we were called to do - might not to be the case.

And you know what - that’s OK. We can change what we do.  There is nothing worse then being stuck doing something we are not passionate about.  If we think we have to continue serving in the same way we were five or 10 years ago, if we are stuck thinking - well I always took care of this so I have to keep doing it - we never give ourselves the chance to grow.  We can end up being angry, disillusioned, resenting what we thought God called us to do.  Then our journey of faith stops and become stagnant.                    

I think that is part of what Jesus is talking about with the vines. If you keep doing the same thing, the same way, year after year, after year, you keep getting further and further away from the main vine. In order to grow, we need to change, and in order to change we need to do some things differently and in order to do things differently, we need to prune some of those stagnant dead branches.  They need to be removed in order for new growth to happen.

By pruning away things that don’t work anymore, sniping off concepts that just don’t fit with our faith, changing the way we do things to fit with what we believe; when we prune away those dead branches that are in the way, we grow. We move forward and our faith journey continues. Sniping away what we don’t need allows us to focus on going deeper in our beliefs.  Hopefully when this happens, we gain wisdom and move closer to God.

Believe me this is not a one time process. And this personal growth often happens when you least expect it.

When Ann started her journey of faith, she never expected to be here today.  One reason would be, she could be ordained if she remained in her denomination. I am sure when she took her vows she thought she would never leave her order, but God called  and she followed.  She continued using her gift of teaching, but in a public school setting instead of a parochial school. When she started her journey here at Maidencreek, she was able to share the deep spirituality she brought with her. She didn’t start over, nor did her journey stop, it continued. She found which ministries  she was passionate about and followed God’s call to serve where she felt called.

I know when she was looking forward to retire.  Ordination was not part of that original plan either.  But here she is continuing on her journey of faith.

We never know when God will call us. In November I preached at Kim Berenotto’s ordination service, she was called as an undergrad and here’s Ann a few years older. We are called by God to do amazing things at all ages.

So I challenge each of you to remain open to where God is calling you next. Don’t worry, I can guarantee God will not be calling all of you to ordination.  We need some people to sit in the pews. But I can also guarantee that when you are open to the journey you will find where God is calling you today and tomorrow.  The women in the story got over being terrified and continues to follow God’s call. She is no different than you.

Thanks be to God for the journey and Thanks be to God for calling Ann!