CELC The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost – August 21, 2005

Romans 12:1-8

It’s been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone. Opps, wrong manuscript! What I want to share today is an open letter to Bruce and Shari Shull as they take leave of us for Tacoma, Washington. So, listen in as I share with Bruce and Shari what a privilege it is for us to do ministry with them.

Bruce and Shari let me begin by saying that it is a real privilege to do ministry with you because you do it as disciples and not simply members. What I mean by this is that for many people in our time a relationship with Jesus Christ is to be a member of the church. There is no discipleship on their part. Folks belong, but don’t have Jesus at the center of their life. With St. Paul today, as he writes to the Romans, we could say that they are conforming to the world, but have not yet been transformed by the grace of God.

You, two, have been transformed by the grace of God. I know that by working with you. For example, Bruce, I remember the trip you made with Warren Spitler to help rebuild Climax Lutheran Church in Minnesota after it was devastated by a flood. I remember as well, Bruce, working with you when you were president of the congregation. I know that your fingerprints are all over the building and ministry of Christ Church. From the light bulbs I have watched you replace to the organ you so competently designed and built for the church to the Sunday School classes you have taught and much more. I look around and see your fingerprints everywhere. You have been transformed to serve as St. Paul speaks of today. To serve as one called by God to discipleship, a call to commitment to the mission and ministry of the gospel. You have responded faithfully.

Shari, your fingerprints are all over, too. I guess we could say that your fingerprints are mostly on the keys of the organ, as they should be. But, there is much more: The hours you spent planning and putting in place so many different programs of Christ Church, from the choirs to LOGOS to Morning and Evening Prayer and much more. You have toiled tirelessly far beyond the hours you were paid to work. Like Bruce, your fingerprints have been outside the building as well. From feeding the hungry to visiting the sick to compassionate care of others, you serve. To the wider community you are known for the marvelous concerts you help plan that showcase our organ. Shari, you, too, serve as one called by God to discipleship, a call to commitment to the mission and ministry of the gospel. You have responded faithfully.

Most of all, I am sure both of you would tell anyone who asks that your transformation to disciples was not your own doing. You would tell anyone who asked that you are not ‘self-made’ people, but rather ‘God-made’ disciples in Christ. For it is in the cross, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that you have known the gracious forgiveness and mercy of God. And not only do you know the mercy of God in the cross, but the cross sets your identity as disciples. You know that all that you do is done in the shadow of the cross as it leads you from this place into the world to serve.

So, you are God-made in the cross. That means you are disciples of Jesus Christ, not just members of a group that may or may not call itself a church. There is a difference between membership and discipleship: members are only concerned about how well they are served. Disciples are concerned only about how they can serve others in the Name of Christ. It is a significant difference. It is a gift of God. It is the movement from conforming to this world to being transformed by God through the cross. There is no greater purpose or meaning in life than to serve as a transformed disciple.

And I know you are disciples because I have had the privilege to know you almost half of the two decades you have been part of Christ Church. I have watched you make faithful use of the means of grace. I have been with you in prayer. I have shared ministry. I have seen you use your gifts for building up the people of God.

St. Paul says it a little different today in the second lesson: He points out that disciples, believers he calls ‘members of the body,’ are defined by three particular things: First, they are gifted by God for serving. Second, they are willing to be different, to use their different gifts to build up others. Third, and finally, they are faithful to this calling by God, faithfully committing their lives to God in Christ. You, two, are models and inspiration for the rest of us of the discipleship St. Paul speaks of today. Let me give you my thanks and the thanks of this congregation for your example and inspiring service among us. You have been gifts to us.

So, as you take leave to Tacoma, let me remind you to continue to serve as you have faithfully served here. Continue to be the models and inspiration you are. As a mother might say to her son as he takes off for college, “remember who you are.” Indeed, Bruce and Shari, remember who you are in Jesus Christ: forgiven, loved disciples called to commit your lives in service to our Lord. In Tacoma be the cross-bearers that you have been here among us.

As I end this open letter, let me say “Go in peace, serve the Lord.” It is this dismissal that carries with it the gift of the cross and the calling of the Holy Spirit. The dismissal beckons all of us to faithful service in Christ’s name. So, “Go in peace, serve the Lord.” Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley