Sermon 09AUG – Service as Worship (to go along with a mission project after church)

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

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A Gift is a Gift – WE ARE IN OUR PENTECOST SERIES AND TALKING ABOUT OUR SEASON OF Going out and sharing the Love…

There is at least one more story from my travels – this one is remembering a sweet gesture from 2 young boys sitting in the airplane seats ahead of me. We were in a jovial section of the back of the plane – behind me were many girl scouts – and in front of me were a hodge podge of folks who had signed up with National Geographic trip – to the Galapagos Islands – everyone enjoyed the Galapagos Islands – and we all had so much to talk about even among strangers.

I appreciated the woman next to me – she was chatty – turns out she and I have the same profession – I was able to talk shop for a bit – and just in the seats immediately in front of us were young boys (maybe 8 to 10 yrs) who had been friends on the trip – and they overheard me asking the lady next to me where she was from – and they chimed in before she could answer and said Germany. Well, this woman was so shocked because it was only in one conversation, that she said, at a dinner, where she mentioned her roots – but she lived in California for a long while now…  These boys picked up on the info – internalized it – shared it – a gift of recall. And a gift of ATTENTIVENESS. 

Later in the flight – more conversations between seats and I handed up two little plastic flamingos – gifts I brought WITH me – gave many out to whomever I thought – no need to give me something back – just for fun. But when I handed the two statues up – the little boys liked them and then they decided to gift me each a purple skittle from their candy – so sweet – the action and the candy. One boy was thinking for sure – what can I give FROM what I have – and not having much – he realized and directed the other little boy to give me each a little purple skittle candy. Sweet…

I didn’t expect any return gift from my gift – I just enjoyed seeing the oohs and aahs from people receiving the flamingo statue. I think that the sweetness of the candy came from a “oh we should give a return gift” – which is not always necessary – or it came from an ATTENTIVENESS of “what do we have that we can give”– and it was good to see sharing kids with good upbringing… Sweet…

How about giving from what we get from the Lord? Well, we could never repay the fill of gifts that He gives us – we could never pay anything worthy of what He gives us – His Grace – His Mercy – His Life – His Everything for our Anything.   And SO, we don’t pay it backwards – we pay it forwards – in service with a good attitude and sharing Him with others – and sharing PRAISE about Him as our cause.

God’s Gift of gifting is to us, well, A GIFT TO WORSHIP HIM – with all our hearts and minds and soul!  And Jesus specifically said (in Matthew 5:16) to let our light SHINE before men – and in so they will PRAISE the Lord… WOW!

A light that shines might be being friendly in a crowded space – smiling at unknown strangers – remembering that the people we interact with are made in God’s image too…  It is being attentive to what we have and how we can share it.

*** The scripture read this morning from Paul to the Romans: in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 

One of the great 20^th century examples of service as worship is the story of Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founder of missionaries – born in Northern Macedonia – she studied and served in Ireland where she learned English and then she served in India – from the late 1940’s on – starting the Missionaries of Charities. Joseph Langford, founder of the congregation of priests, the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, later wrote, “Though no one knew it at the time, Sister Teresa had just become Mother Teresa.”

Sister Teresa experienced what she later described as “the call within the call” – “to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. [she means from Jesus]. She had to keep FAITH that it was the thing to do.

Mother Teresa emphasized service as a manifestation of love. 

Her notable quote states, “Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.” This highlights her belief that true love is expressed through acts of kindness and service to others.

Writers [Sara and Justin Kraft] would say about Mother Teresa: “One cannot be fully alive without relationships with others. We are made for love, to be unified in giving and receiving with others and ultimately with God. If we close ourselves off to service, we will never create the space within ourselves to be filled with the love of God. He can transform the most difficult tasks into meaningful experiences, but we have to be aware of His presence.”  – I am going to repeat that  – God can transform the most difficult tasks into meaningful experiences – but we have to be aware of His presence – and His Presence creates that space within us to LOVE to serve – and to worship.

These Mother Teresa impactful quotes exemplify the meaning of charity and love and service for others as worship:  

• “If you judge people, you have no time to love them,”  
• “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” 
• “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.”
• “I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?”

It is Love that we share… From Love – from Jesus Himself through His Holy Spirit.

We have a story in scripture – from our great role model of Jesus – urging us to give GENUINELY – we give whatever we have in FAITH, in TRUST, in Service of Giving.

This reminds me about the story Jesus told of the woman with 2 mites – Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

This is not a “give until it hurts” sermon, but to remember that the gift of TRUST and SERVICE is from the space we create WITH GOD – the widow’s gift came from a worshipful place – it was not flashy nor knowing that someone else was watching. And so we don’t need to just give from a place of that sense of duty – it is BETTER that we can give in JOY FROM JOY – from a space inside us appreciating everything we have and what we can share – because we’ve been given that gift… And because we TRUST GOD IS taking care of us, we can be in the mix to help others realize His Gifts.

We show and SHINE – by our service FROM US – it can be anything, time or talents, truly God in the Holy Spirit – in a Pentecost way to BE worship – to come from within – to let us praise. SO let us NOT be short on praise – let us NOT being dilly-dallying before we praise – even in tough times the Lord asks for us to praise. The book of James reminds us about Perseverance – and that leads to praise – we may not know the circumstances of life that puts thorns in our sides – like Paul – but we are to remember to praise… Give our hearts to God – and strength and soul and mind – and praise…

Jesus gave us the example of the ultimate gift – We love because he first loved us. He laid down His life for us – His friends the disciples and for us before we were even born. We praise God because we know God and we want God to be known through us – John would write: If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. (1st John 4:12-14)

Our service to others is FROM that core that God put in us – service to God – and becomes our worship to thank Him that we can give what we can.

Don’t conform to the patterns of today – think of YOUR skills – YOUR gifts – YOUR inklings – This is something that you and the Lord can work out together – sometimes it is right in front of you… Our scripture: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

A pattern game is a favorite of mine growing up – Perfection – it would pop if you didn’t get all the pieces in – well God is the one creating the game we call life in HIS PERFECTION – we could know that we have a space all prepared for us – and will be in it – and yet we can be out in life – on the board – and help others find their place in HIS PUZZLE of Life…

Whether it is giving time – giving encouragement, hope, or even little purple skittles candies – smiles, or giving service in presence like Mother Teresa – let us remember to make it worshipful as what God wants – our praise and our service is a worship to the Lord who holds the whole world in His Hand.

Amen

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And let us pray: Lord – thank You for this time to reflect and learn – to ponder – Jesus Himself said: “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit… “  what fruit today would you have us give back to the world in service and worship. Lord, I can’t wait to see what kind of fruit salad mix from all of us – that You, Lord, are gifting the world with – Let us always be creating a place for You within us – and see a peace in us in order to serve others as you do…  AMEN