Embracing Our Destiny

A sermon preached by Bishop Thomas Bickerton as part of Foundry UMC's Outstanding Preacher Series on Sunday, July 12, 2015.

I.                  When I was a boy I was a little, short fat kid.  What that often times meant was that my aspirations did not match up very well with my reality.  My aspiration was to be a great athlete.  My reality was far different from that.

 

II.                Some of the most humiliating experiences I had in relationship to my reality not being compatible with my aspiration had to do with my greatest love in all of sports, baseball.

 

In fifth grade, I was old enough to play what we called back then “Bronco League.”  On the day of the big draft I found myself at East End playground with my buddies.  The draft started with coaches looking over the stands and selecting players that they either knew or looked the part.  Mike, then Steve, then Phil, then Joe were all selected.  Near the end of the draft I still sat on the bench.  Finally, at the end of the draft, each coach could pick two more players.  The coach nonchalantly looked into the stands and said, “I’ll take him and him,” and walked away with his other prized players.  I was the next to the last person picked in the draft.

 

I did not realize at the time that I had been drafted onto the best team in the league.  The rules were quite different then.  There were no rules about having a guaranteed place on a team or a requirement that every player had to play a certain amount of innings. If you didn’t make it, you were cut.  And if you didn’t cut it, you wouldn’t play.

 

I was the last player who made the team.  For two years I sat on the bench inning after inning after inning.  In two years I had only one at bat.  I walked and was later thrown out.  At the awards ceremony celebrating our season ending victory, I was called forward to receive my trophy.  When the coach handed it to me, someone shouted from the crowd, “Why is he getting one, he didn’t do anything to deserve it.”

 

I sat on the bench.  I was never asked to play.  The perception was that because I was a little, short, fat kid I couldn’t play.  I didn’t look the part of the accepted norm.  I was, for two seasons, just him, the one who was picked because someone had to be.  I didn’t look the part so I never got to play the game.

 

III.             What a sad and depressing way to begin a sermon on this glorious Lord’s day.  Yet, my childhood experience is somewhat reminiscent of the manner in which life unfolds even in this second decade of the 21^st century.

 

We live in what is a very judgmental environment.  People are so often and so easily placed into categories, judged for their behaviors, and criticized for their decisions.  It’s a “my way or the highway” existence in many ways.  Either you agree with me or you are wrong, and if we can’t find a way to agree I reserve the right to just take my marbles and go home.

 

We are put into preconceived boxes:

·         I don’t like the way you look

·         I don’t care for the way you act.

·         I don’t approve of your choices.

·         And if I have to, I’ll pick um, “her and him” and be done with it.

 

IV.             What a sad and depressing way to begin a sermon.  But lest you get the feeling that the story ends here, along comes this passage of scripture from Ephesians.  In the original Greek these eleven independent verses are one long sentence that some have described as an explosion of praise that is, by design, intended to give the original reader in Ephesus, and the modern reader in today’s context, an idea of what God is up to in this vast world of ours.  This is a poetic exultation that calls us to bless the God who blesses us.  We may be, by the interpretation of some in the world, relegated to the end of the bench with no worth or ability, but we play a far more important role based on God’s activity and intentions.

 

V.                This one big, beautiful sentence has a series of sermons built in that need to be proclaimed.

 

Ephesians says, “God chose us.”

 

We have been adopted into the family and God has taken great pleasure in doing so!  God’s will is associated with pleasure.  God’s will for your life and for mine is associated with joy, pleasure, and happiness.  This is good stuff:  God’s will for your life is something good, not something awful or something to be dreaded, or something to be criticized.

 

 

 

 

 

We are, through our baptism, claimed, called and loved with a love that will not let us go.  It is the reason we baptize infants in our church – before a child can ever say “I love you God,” God has already proclaimed love for that child.  It is why we have an open table at Holy Communion.   In the masterful liturgy that we use, we invite everyone, member and non-member alike, to join us as we receive a gracious reminder that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to point the way for how we were to live. 

 

VI.             Ephesians says, God has blessed us. 

 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (verse 3)

 

 What that means is that we are beneficiaries of what God is up to in the world.  This doesn’t mean that we are sitting on the bench watching the action on the field.  It means that we are right in the middle of God’s action happening all around us.  We have been lavished with redemption, forgiveness, and an inheritance that is eternal in nature.

 

We are blessed to enjoy this intimate relationship with God and enjoy all of the benefits attached from being a member of God’s family.  It’s not that we have chosen God – it is that God has chosen us.  We are a part of the family.

 

VII.          Being chosen was something that continued to overwhelm the Apostle Paul.  He was a murderer, an oppressor of Christians, a judger of others.  He was one of those people that put people in boxes, judged their behaviors, and condemned their choices.  Yet, out of that evil behavior, God called this man and transformed him into the likeness of Christ.  Paul could never get over it.  God said to Paul, I want you to be a part of my family.

 

I don’t know about you but when I sense that I am wanted I am affirmed and lifted up to new heights of possibility.  It reframes everything and enables me to see myself and others, neighbor and stranger, friend or foe in a new and fresh light.  It builds my confidence and improves my gait. We have been chosen for the team and God did it enthusiastically.

 

When you and I feel as if we are claimed and loved, we become keenly aware of how blessed we are.    How have you been blessed? 

 

·         A joyful baptism at this font. 

·         The joy you found in providing a helping hand to someone in need.

·         A relationship that has clarified and defined the true meaning of love in your life. 

·         A time when someone freely forgave you for something that you had done wrong. 

·         A memorial service that reminded you of a deep-seeded faith which proclaims our belief in something more than just this life.

 

VIII.         But here’s the real kicker.

 

Ephesians says, God Destined Us.

 

What does that mean?  To claim our destiny is to answer a simple question:  “What are you going to do with what you’ve got?” 

Paul says that we have obtained an inheritance and that we are destined as God’s children to live for the praise of God’s glory.  That may be the hardest part of the story.

 

A few weeks ago when the merciless shooting of persons took place at Emanuel Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, we all stood in disbelief at how innocent people were killed while attending a bible study.  This racially driven hate crime stirred the blood of many.  All eyes have been on Charleston.  Would this become yet another Ferguson or New York or Baltimore?  But some curious things have taken place. 

·         On the day after the shooting, people refused to sit in preconceived groups but gathered as one people in a service of prayer.

·         At the initial hearing for the shooter, family members of the victims called for him to repent.  They spoke of forgiveness and processing this atrocity with faith.

·         Later that weekend, persons from all ethnicities and walks of life gathered to form a human chain across the bridge leading into Charleston as a sign of unity and resolve. 

·         In his eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney on June 26, President Obama made grace the central theme:

o   The grace family members of the victims embodied in expressing forgiveness for the killer.

o   The grace that the city of Charleston and state of South Carolina displayed in coming together in the wake of the massacre.

o   The grace God bestowed in transforming a tragedy into an occasion for renewal and hope.

 

Peace and grace, prayer and the struggle for reconciliation has been the foundation upon which the difficult conversations about unjust racism has taken place.  Rather than violence, they have prayed.  Rather than retaliated, they have taken the high road.  It could be argued that they are living for the praise of God and have claimed their destiny as children of God who will say with faith the unbelievable words, “Nothing will be able to separate me from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

IX.             How many times have people like you and I been put into a box, judged and scorned, sinned against and been made to feel less than the child of God that we were created to be?  And how many times have you and I been tempted to lash out in response and react to those injustices with unjust behaviors of our own? 

 

We are called to claim our destiny – you and I are created by God, claimed by God, and loved by our God with a love that will never let you go.  Claim it and use it as a the strength you need to live and witness for the praise of God’s glory.

 

Those that attack us hope that we will retaliate and thus prove the fallacy of our faith.  But ordinary people like Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King rose to greatness when they claimed their inheritance as children of God and used that inheritance to witness to the enduring power of God’s grace at work in their lives.  You and I have not only received grace.  We are called upon to live by it as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The writer of Revelation put it well.  One day, God will usher in a new day

 

“See, the home[a] of God is among mortals.

He will dwell[b] with them;

they will be his peoples,[c]

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

(Revelation 21:3-4)

 

X.                These are tough and challenging days, to be sure.  We wonder what the will of God truly is and we struggle when we see actions and behaviors that demean others and cause harm.  It is hard to endure and in the midst of the struggle there is the very real temptation to wonder where we fit in the big picture of the world.

 

 

XI.             Every year in Western Pennsylvania we host a series of personal visits to our Conference Center by those enrolled in local church confirmation classes.  In PA, a student gets a day off from school in order to attend a confirmation related activity.  During the day, we plan a series of events at the Conference Center.  As a part of the day, I have 30 minutes sitting on the floor with each confirmation class in a free for all session of conversation and sharing.  During the winter/spring we will have anywhere from 1,200-1,400 confirmation students coming through our center.  It is totally exhausting.

 

Last year, I talked with the kids about what I do and how I do it. 

·         I explained to them that in the midst of all the things I do, sitting on the floor with them is among the things that I cherish the most. 

·         I told them that in the midst of all that they face, making this decision about how much God fits into their lives would be their most important decision. 

·         I affirmed with the kids that I realized it was tough being a teenager in the 21^st century: lots of choices coming their way and lots of forces competing for their energy. 

·         I acknowledged that it was tough growing up and that many of them, no doubt, were facing peer pressure and bullying in person and through social media.

·         I summarized my remarks by calling each of the kids by name and saying over and over to them that they mattered to God, to their sponsors, and to me. 

·         I talked to them about the claim placed on their lives at their baptism and that God loved them with a love that would not let them go. 

·         I told them that they mattered.

 

At the end of the day on one of the Confirmation Tours, I was packing up some things to take home with me.  I was totally wiped out from a long and exhausting day.  All of a sudden there was a soft knock on my door.  Looking up there was a head of a confirmation student peaking around the corner at me.

 

This little guy spoke up, “Bishop, we are getting ready to leave.  I wanted to thank you for spending some time with us.  Thanks for the book bag and for the snacks.  I really had a great time.”

 

I assured John that I too had had a good time and that I was glad he and his class came.  I told him that he was always welcome and that any time he was in the area he should stop by.  He nodded his head and disappeared.

 

Before I could gather up my things and head for the door, John’s head peered around the corner once more. 

 

“Bishop,” he said, “I just wanted you to know – you matter too.”

 

There was nothing more I needed in that moment. 

 

Frankly, there is nothing more I need in the journey of life. 

 

I made it a point to tell the kids that they mattered but the biggest reminder I received was that I mattered too.

 

I wondered on the way home how my life would have been altered if my baseball coach had said those words so long ago or if my teammates had said something like that when I received my trophy.  I turned out okay but missed opportunities to bless someone on the journey can have dire consequences for some. 

 

An opportunity not missed by a confirmation student for his bishop.

  

XII.          So, here we are.  At times we are regulated to the bench and wonder whether or not we have a place on the team.  We live in a judging world, a place that seems God-forsaken at times.  Fingers are pointed, accusations are made, judgements are leveled.  It wears us out, deflates our fragile egos and demeans our sense of self-worth.

 

There are fingers pointed at us all the time and it has a way, at times, of just wearing us out.  And when we are all spent of energy, sitting worn down on the side of the bench, there is another finger pointed at us.

 

And in the midst of it all, you ask me to come and preach.  What do I have to say that will make any difference?

 

You matter.