“BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING”
Dr. Stephen D. Jones, preaching
Second Baptist Church, St. Louis
November 11, 2007
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Have you noticed how easy it is
to identify your burdens? How much easy it is to complain? How much we dwell on
our struggles?
What are your
struggles?
There’s not enough
money in my checkbook.
There’s a conflict
between members of my family.
I’m worried about the
dismal shape of the economy.
I’m worried that my
stock portfolio has declined.
I’m worried about the
world my children are entering.
I’m worried about
militants and extremists and the harm they can do.
I struggle with
school.
I struggle with my
job.
I struggle to find a
job.
I struggle to be
understood.
I struggle to find my
voice.
I struggle to find
someone to love me as I am.
We can rattle off our struggles
and worries with ease. We dwell on them all the time.
But, when asked to identify our
blessings, it requires a little more thought.
There was a pastor whose favorite
expression was, “It might be worse.” Anytime anyone was in an accident or had a
disease, he would always respond, “It might be worse.” One day a friend said to
him, “I dreamed last night that I died and went to hell.” The pastor responded,
“It might be worse.” The friend said, “Man alive, how could it be worse?” The
pastor calmly responded, “It could be true.”
There is a strong cultural belief
in doing things for ourselves, pulling ourselves up by our own bootstrap,
earning our way as we go. There’s no stronger compliment than someone saying,
“You accomplished this all by yourself.” We desire to be self-made people. No
one wants to be dependent upon others. We want to make it in life under our own
steam. We truly are rugged individualists.
In such a world, we say: “Look at
all she’s accomplished!” “Consider all he’s achieved!” When I first saw our
sanctuary windows I assumed that the figure of Jesus was in each window
expressing that particular beatitude. But our windows vary in expressing the
meaning of each beatitude through the conversion of Apostle Paul, the struggles
of Job, Jesus’ temptation with the devil, and the parable of the Good
Samaritan. The window that expresses the beatitude, “Blessed are those who feel
their spiritual need,” does so by telling the story of the tax collector and the
righteous Pharisee. The Pharisee has tailored robes of beauty and looks up to
heaven proudly. The Pharisee’s hands are saying, “Look at the work of my
hands! Look at all I have accomplished in my righteous life.” He looms in the
center of the window and attention is first given to him. But if one looks down
the window, in front, one sees the tax collector looking down and pleading with
God, “Forgive me, for I am a sinner.” And it is the tax collector who feels his
spiritual need and to him the kingdom of heaven belongs.
St. Louis is a city that has had
many great civic patrons: William Danforth, the Busches, James McDonnell, Luther
Ely Smith, and Henry Shaw. Think of what these wealthy patrons have accomplished
in and for St. Louis. Not only did they build business empires, but their
contributions are etched into every cultural and civic organization in the
city. Look at the work of their hands! Consider all they have accomplished! They
are the envy and pride of the city.
Rosa Parks is famous for
launching the Montgomery bus boycott, and there is a legend that Rosa Parks, a
seamstress in her early forties, got on the bus one day and was exhausted and
sat in the front in the section reserved for whites only. Rosa Parks went on to
become an American legend. But the legend isn’t entirely accurate. I am sure
that other days Rosa also was tired from a long day’s work and looked longingly
at the front seats as she dutifully obeyed an unjust law.
No, the truth of it is that Rosa
Parks didn’t act alone nor on her own. She had studied the theory and tactics of
nonviolence at the Higherlander Folk School in the remote mountains of Tennessee
where Martin Luther King, Jr. was also a student. And she was secretary of the
NAACP in Montgomery. She was well trained in civil disobedience. She could have
moved to the rear of the bus. She chose not to. She was no timid or backward
seamstress. She was an enlightened part of a movement, and the police coming on
the bus and threatening her with jail could not dissuade her from the truth of
what she was doing. I say this not to diminish this civil rights legend, but to
stress that she did not act alone.
When I was in Dayton, the Wright
Brothers were the civic legends. And the only remaining member of the Wright
family was a member of my congregation. You saw the certificate which she
presented to Jan and me as we left Dayton. But the Wright Brothers weren’t
acting in isolation or alone in 1902 at Kitty Hawk. In 1901, Dr. Wilhelm Kress
of Austria, in 1901 Gustave Whitehead, and also in 1902 Lyman Gilmore and
Richard Pearce of New Zealand were all experimenting with flight. The human
genius was on the verge of discovery, and the Wright Brothers were the first to
pull it off. But others around the world were racing with them. They were not
alone. And without the insights and learnings and inspiration shared by gliders
and balloonists, the discovery would not have occurred when it did.
I found it fascinating to read
the story of Goodman Household, a black South African and member of the Zulu
tribe who built and flew his own glider in 1871. It is on these shoulders that
the Wright Brothers stood in designing their flying machine.
You and I also stand on the
shoulders of others. We add to what those who have gone before us have
accomplished, learned and explored. Anyone who claims, “I’m a self-made person,”
is a fool. There isn’t any paycheck that you have ever received that you fully
earned on your own. It was from others that you learned the meaning of work, it
was from others that you learned self-discipline, it was others who first helped
you claim your gifts and talents. There are no completely original thoughts,
ideas or inventions. We borrow from others all the time. We build upon the
contributions of previous generations. But it isn’t just human interdependence.
Isaiah stated, “Can the pot say
to the potter, ‘I have no need of you?’” (45:9) If God is Creator of the
universe and the creative Presence within and throughout the universe, how can
any of us claim to be self-made? We were lovingly shaped by divine hands,
creatively thrust in this world for a reason. Our abilities are gifts, which
means that we don’t really deserve them. They are gifts given to us by the Giver
of Life.
What we lack in our society is an
appreciation of and respect for blessings. A blessing is something you can’t
earn. A blessing is something you don’t deserve. A blessing is something you
can’t manage or control. A blessing is given to you – you have only to receive
it. We have been thinking over the past several weeks about how Second Baptist
Church is a blessing in our lives. You didn’t create all the good this church
has done. You didn’t organize the support you received at the moment you needed
it. It’s a blessing. It came to you, often unexpected and unanticipated.
In truth, we are shaped more by
blessing than accomplishment. I don’t mean to de-value our personal
achievements. But there is nothing you have done for which you alone deserve the
credit. The circles of human support around you have blessed your life. And
God’s circle of love has graced your life.
The point isn’t to sit back and
wait for God to bless us. But as we work, as we strive, we do so standing upon
the shoulders of other people upheld by God’s bountiful love.
God intends that our lives will
be a blessing to others, particularly to those forgotten, those abused and hurt,
those marginalized and stereotyped. But God never asks us to be a blessing to
others unless and until we have been first blessed ourselves.
It’s a tragedy when it doesn’t
happen, but most babies are born into blessing. Helpless and dependent, someone
has to hold you and nurse you and clothe you and change you and teach you to
smile and talk and sing and love. Someone has to set boundaries to protect you
and teach you wisdom.
So, this includes everything you
supposedly own or possess. You likely don’t grow all the food you eat, and you
likely don’t produce the heat that warms your home, and you likely didn’t build
the car you drive. You likely don’t know how to create electricity, or how to
build a light bulb from scratch using no manufactured products. Could you
design and build the shoes you are wearing? What is it that you can do
completely and utterly on your own? I’m at a loss to name anything. If you are
good at self-care, I dare say it’s because someone taught you to value yourself
and how to take care of yourself. Someone else modeled self-care for you.
You and I owe so much to our
parents, our teachers, our mentors, our models, our favorite authors, and
heroines and heroes. In all that we are and all that we have we are blessed
beyond measure.
Several weeks ago, six students
from the University of South Carolina were spending the week-end at the beach
when a fire tragically took their lives. One young student survived because he
jumped out of a third story window into a canal. And on TV one night, he said,
“People keep telling me that everything happens for a reason. But I’m struggling
to learn the reason for this.” That is just bad theology and bad advice given to
this grieving student. Everything that happens isn’t destiny or God’s
doing. Accidents happen. Mistakes are made. It’s a tragedy, not an act of God.
There may be some hidden blessing that comes out of it, but that’s not the
reason it happened. This young man might devote his life to public safety and
fire code enforcement and he may save many more lives than were lost that
fateful night. In the midst of such terrible loss, that young man can eventually
find his way to turn such a loss into a blessing. That still doesn’t explain why
it happened.
You and I are blessed in so many
ways. If we have a safe place to live, that is a blessing. Jan and I feel so
blessed to finally settle into our home. And we feel so blessed by the way this
congregation has surrounded us with support. One of the thrills of this past
week was to finally put my personal library together in my home office. As I
took my books from those boxes and organized them on shelves, I realized how
dependent I am on Karen Armstrong and Marcus Borg and John A.T. Robinson and
John Dominic Crossan and Anne Lamott and Ross Snyder and Martin Buber and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Frederick Buechner and Melanie May and Henri Nouwen and
Paula Fredrikson and Martin Marty, and the list goes on and on. I’ve found it
hard to preach without depending on what others have written and what others
have taught me. And many weeks I went diving into boxes of books trying to find
one particular book to help me in saying what I wanted to say.
I love the story of the ten
lepers who were healed. It occurred when Jesus was passing in an area between
where the Jews lived and where the Samaritans lived. In other words, it was a no
man’s land because of the animosity between these two groups. And it wasn’t
surprising that lepers who were shunned so as not to spread their dreaded
disease, would live in this isolated area. Jews traveling between Galilee and
Judea would swing far out around Samaria rather than walk near it. Jesus walked
near Samaria and through Samaria as a part of his mission.
Apparently, in their disease,
these ten lepers had formed a little community in order to survive, and survival
apparently outweighed the normal separation between Jews and Samaritans. For in
this group of lepers, both groups were present. And when they pleaded with Jesus
for healing, and he sent them off to the priests, along the way they were
healed. Can you imagine their excitement? With each step they took, more spots
went away and more oozing sores dried up and finally, their skin was
clear. These lepers hadn’t seen friends or family for years. And I suspect the
nine raced on for a family reunion of such joy as to be unimagined! They were
blessed beyond words! They were blessed and could now resume their lives and
take their places back in their own communities.
But one, a Samaritan, returned to
Jesus to give thanks. He recognized what a blessing he had just received and he
returned to bow down and offer his sincere gratitude. And Jesus said to him,
“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19) It was
now the Samaritan’s turn to go on his way and share the blessing he had received
with others. His life would never be the same. He could never forget the
blessing he had received. He circled back in order to be sent forth as a
blessing to others.
I am blessed beyond words to
serve you as pastor and to bring with me into the pastoral office all my wise
teachers, all my mentors and models, the wonderful wisdom of my mother and
father, the hundreds of people who have loved me and shaped me as a pastor. I
stand on their shoulders. And I am blessed beyond compare.
But I’d be lousy at worshipping
alone. And I’m blessed every Sunday morning by this choir. And I’m blessed by
Marilyn at the piano and organ. And I felt blessed last Sunday to have been a
part of Kara preaching her first sermon in this church. What a blessing. And I
feel blessed to worship in this beautiful house of worship. I had nothing to do
with its design. And I feel blessed to worship with you, this loving
congregation. But you were here before I came. I didn’t shape you or make you or
create you. You are a blessing in my life.
I feel blessed as I get to know
so many of you, for the persons of integrity, of vision and compassion that you
are.
God’s hands have been all over my
life. I have been inspired by God’s vision, undergirded by God’s forgiveness,
supported by God’s lovingkindness, called by God’s Voice, nurtured in God’s
Word. Oh, have I been blessed. And if you were preaching, couldn’t you say the
same thing of your life? Haven’t you been blessed beyond words?
As God freely gives us life and
blesses us daily, God asks one thing in return and that is for us to be a
blessing to others. If you have a home, use it as a blessing in some way for
others. If you have a car, use it in some way as a blessing for others. If you
have a career, find ways to be a blessing to others through your work. If you
have good health and physical strength, use that as a blessing for others. If
you have good friends, be a blessing to them. If you have family or loved ones,
be a blessing to them.
We’re envisioning how this church
can be an even greater blessing in the coming year. Things are beginning to
happen. Visions are taking shape. We are coming together in new ways. And all
because we are called to be a blessing to others.
Everything you own, every dollar
in your bank account, isn’t really yours alone. You are a steward of it. It is a
blessing entrusted to you.
Years ago, Jan and I decided to
tithe our income in order that that portion be used exclusively as a blessing
for others. That doesn’t mean the other 90% is for our own selfish
advancement. But with the 10%, that is truly intended to build up God’s shalom
on earth. And much of our tithe goes to this church. We give to other causes,
but in terms of building up God’s shalom, nothing can compare to what a vital
local congregation can accomplish.
I don’t know where you are in
your giving. I know many of you give sacrificially. I know that we are blessed
to be a blessing to others.
As we leave worship today, we
will each receive a packet with our Blessing Commitment Card included. As we
return next Sunday, and combine our pledges, we will then know what kind of
blessing that this church can be in 2008 and what kind of blessing we can be as
God’s People.
As we have been blessed in
countless ways, let us be a blessing to others. Amen.
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