Loading...So, it’s participation day! After all, we are called to participate. We are not to just listen and learn. We are not only to be disciples! Jesus took 12 of his disciples (learners) and sent them out as apostles – the “sent out ones”.
This is not a test for a grade, or for salvation – after all “we are justified by faith [and] we have peace with God through or Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”
Nothing you do or don’t do can change God’s all encompassing and radical love. That’s a given, that’s foundational.
We ARE the “treasured people”, the “priestly kingdom”, the “holy nation”.
Yet, what do you do with that?
Just sit with it and think “oh, lucky me! Lucky us!”?
How do you take what you’ve learned and put it into action?
Consider this: the mission of the church and of followers of The Way (that is, The Way of Jesus) is dynamic and on the move. Ask yourself, how does that mission and dynamism show up in your daily life? I already know about the ministry that we do collectively through St. David’s: Caritas, Family Promise, Linwood school, Project HOPE (Youth Ops). But, what about in your daily life?
How are you proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of heaven is near? How are you loving your neighbor, but also your “enemy” (or at least, people you don’t know)? How are you using your life experience (particularly the difficulties and challenges) to trust God and the life that you have in God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit poured into your hearts?
Every week you have that “salmon colored flyaway” stuffed into your bulletin. Our dear “Pew Angels” wonder if they should still be putting them into the bulletins and I tell them “YES! People use them. They share with me their intention for living out their faith; they share prayer concerns; they tell me about the work of volunteers in our midst.” I don’t always get one from all y’all, and that’s OK.
But, today, I invite you to take out the flyaway and write on it somewhere something about how you are participating in the kingdom of heaven on earth. Take some time to write down how you are an apostle – sent out into the world to proclaim the goodness of God through your words and actions. Tell me how you are living in the hope that you’ve been given (especially if it’s hard won through suffering, endurance, and character building).
Normally while you do such a thing, I would sing a little song. But, I cannot sing. So, think and write while I share another little nugget of God’s grace with you:
If you cannot think of anything, that’s OK.
If you think to yourself, I wouldn’t know where to begin, that’s OK.
If you talk back to me in your head, Kimmy, I’m one of those “helpless and hapless” people for whom Jesus has compassion in the Gospel story. I don’t even know how God shows up in my life, much less how I share God’s love to others!! That’s OK too.
If all you can think of is that you show up for others when they’re feeling beat up by life and circumstances, then PLEASE write that down, because, my friends, that is exactly what I mean.
God, in one of the many and various forms in which we encounter God, shows up with us in the high points (yay creation, sunrises, family!), but also in the challenges and struggles (oy veh, betrayal, heartache, loss, anger, confusion, despair). God comes and sits down with us when we feel like we’re in the dungeon of grief or the pit of despair. When we are in the muck and mire and manure. We may not always recognize God as God – maybe that day God looks like your pet, or your friend, or a stranger – but God is with you.
And, we are sent out into the world, into daily life, into our neighborhoods and communities to share this presence, goodness, and hope that we have from God. We are sent as apostles to proclaim the love of God for all creation. Share what you know and what gives you life.
Amen
