It is too light a thing...

                                                           Diocesan Convention 2014

                                       Isaiah 49:5-13; Ps 67; Eph. 3:1-12; Matt 28:16-20

Father Adam Trambley

November 7, 2014, St.John’s Sharon
(Sermon text is below the 12-minute video.)

Today’s readings are taken from the propers for the Mission of the Church.  These lessons are meant to be inspirational texts for auspicious occasions like this one, when we talk about going out to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.  But things are never quite that rosy.  While the eleven disciples are on the mountain with their resurrected Lord Jesus, some doubted.  Paul’s letters, filled with soaring theology and missionary zeal, always seem to come in the midst of some heinous church conflict or other.  If the guy ever just sent his churches some feel-good Valentine’s Day cards -- you know, Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Jesus loves you, I do too, and here's some candy -- we don’t have them.  And when we come to today’s Isaiah reading, we pick it up on the upswing of a conversation already in progress.

In the previous chapter of Isaiah, God has called the people of Israel back from their exile.  They are to leave Babylon shouting for joy. Then at the beginning of chapter 49, the Lord calls his servant, who is presumably the one who would have been leading the people home, proclaiming the word of the Lord to them and glorifying God with them.  But somewhere along the line, it didn’t quite work out that way.  In verse four, right before our reading tonight begins, the prophet cries,

“I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;”

And then, “yet..my reward [is] with my God.”

Sounds like he’s already waiting for his final reward.

Maybe somebody here tonight feels the same way God’s prophet did.  Maybe somebody felt a call to proclaim God’s good news and change lives and make a difference, and now sees fewer and fewer people in the pews and feels like they’ve spent their strength.  Maybe somebody worked tirelessly for their congregation, a congregation that now can’t keep the building up and doesn’t have any children in Sunday school, and now feels like they have labored in vain.  Maybe somebody gave sacrificially for years and wore out the kneeler in their pew, and now looks around at where things are and thinks it was all for nothing.   Maybe somebody here tonight feels just the like prophet did when he says, “my reward [is] with my God” -- that you’ve fought the good fight, finished as much of the race as you are going to get to, and just hope for that “well done good and faithful servant” after a nice funeral from the Book of Common Prayer.

The prophet knew how you feel.  He didn’t feel like he had succeeded in bringing Jacob back to God or gathering Israel together before the Lord.  The people weren’t showing up for Sabbath Worship, the buildings hadn’t been maintained since they were taken into exile seventy years ago, and the kids were all too busy playing on their iPapyrus game systems to memorize the Ten Commandments.  So he complains to God and says he gives up.

God listens and responds.  The Almighty says,

“It is too light a thing

that you should be my servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob

And to restore the survivors of Israel;

I will give you as a light to the nations,

That my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Say, what?  The man just said he can’t handle the job with Israel, so God said you’re going to light up the world.  Sometimes people refer to that as “kicking a problem upstairs,” and it doesn’t generally work.  Jesus may never have had an MBA, but surely the God of all wisdom would know better.  Well, God knows better.  God knows that we never succeed in anything important if our vision is too small.  God knows that we can never lift people up unless we are lifting them up for something beyond themselves.  And God knows that we can never restore anyone to anything unless we give them enough light to shine onto others.  God knows it is too light a thing to raise up Jacob and restore Israel when the real work is to give light to the nations and let salvation reach to the ends of the earth.

God’s answer is the same to us when we are tired and worn down and giving up because somehow our congregational life isn’t all that it used to be or what we want it to be or what we believe it should to be.  It is too light a thing merely to raise up our Sunday morning tribe and restore those who used to be there.  I will give you as a light to the nations, says the Lord, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. 

   

This commission may seem overwhelming, but the churches in this diocese are living into it, even in the midst of all the challenges we face.

Because it is too light a thing just to serve our members’ children, some of our churches have started pre-schools for the community.  Others give books at the holidays, or work with tutoring programs, or pack boxes of needed supplies to young’ins in other countries.

Because it is too light a thing just to bless the water we mix with the Eucharistic wine, some of our churches have drilled wells in arid lands so that people have enough to drink.  Others have provided food or animals or other basic necessities to those in need in far away places.

Because it is too light a thing just to have fellowship with one another at coffee hour, some of our churches sponsor community dinners where people sit down for a meal together and share stories and get to know each other and pray for one another.

Because it is too light a thing just to turn the basement keys over to a twelve-step group leader, one congregation has started a weekly Service of Evening Prayer and a Bible study for addicts and another congregation is helping those from a local half-way house find jobs and housing.

Because it is too light a thing just to pray for those we know, some of our congregations sponsor healing services for the community, others have prayer groups, Daughters of the King chapters, or intercessory teams, and many individuals go to their closets and pray fervently in secret for the needs of the church and the world, including for those who are not yet Christian.

Because it is too light a thing just to worry about the church in this corner of the Kingdom, this Diocese has a history of sending people out who have preached the gospel to different nations, tribes and tongues, and we have to commit to it once again.  After serving St. John’s in 1866, Deacon Hayward went to the Seneca Indians and got the Bible translated into their language.  After building the first Cathedral structure, John Franklin Spalding became missionary bishop of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico in 1873, and his son Franklin Spencer Spalding followed his footsteps, becoming the mission bishop of Utah in 1904.   In the late 1930’s Miss Sarah True of Erie worked as a missionary in Liberia and died of malaria there while spreading the gospel.    

We can still bring light to the world, even today, from our homes in Northwestern Pennsylvania.  A local missionary from Hermitage has worked in Mexico for years, and is now raising up Mexican pastors and missionaries to go out to parts of the world where they can be more effective than tall, blond Americans.  A pastor from north of Pittsburgh started prayer-walking in unchurched areas and now has prayer centers and orphanages and medical facilities throughout Southeast Asia.  Of course they are evangelical charismatics, but there is no reason we can’t once again take the good news to the nations as Episcopalians from the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania.  This call to go out to the nations is, after all, the Great Commission, and we delude ourselves if we think our congregations can hope to be lifted up and restored without seriously engaging evangelism to the nations.  We can struggle mightily to rebuild our own churches, but God’s answer remains that it is too light a thing just to restore your own enterprise.  God says, I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

This evening, our service is about the Mission of the Church, that awesome call to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.  Our Diocese has a particular, God-ordained role to play in that mission, and so does every congregation and every person here tonight.  Anything less would just be too light a thing.   

For more information about what happened at our 2014 Diocesan Convention go to http://dionwpa.org/#/news-events/diocesan-convention-2014 .