This Week's Sermon
Sunday Oct. 12th 2008 -- Stewardship drive co-chairs Sooz Edwards and Kevin Long
Sooz Edwards
Hi, I’m Sooz Edwards and this is a new experience for me. When Father Tom first asked if I would prayerfully consider talking to the congregation this weekend, I rolled my eyes. I thought it was just one more stress, one more item to put on the “to do” list, one more “first” .. and I’ve experienced several “firsts” in the last 10 months. But I did prayerfully consider his request and realized that he was, in fact, offering me a gift. Father Tom was giving me the opportunity to thank all of you for your love, support, prayers, concern, thoughtfulness and the innumerable acts of kindness you’ve extended to me since Ray’s illness and death, which was followed shortly by my Mother’s death.
Knowing that Ray and I didn’t have a large family to begin with, and knowing that what family we do have lives either in California or Florida, many people asked if I would stay in Omaha .. what was here for me? I always responded that I had a good support network here. A network of friends and neighbors .. many sisters and brothers in Christ .. indeed family. Why would I go anywhere else when I am so blessed right here? For over 13 years this was home for us and now this is home for me.
I started coming to All Saints about 6 years ago. Growing up, we always went to church .. sometimes Methodist, sometimes Presbyterian, and sometimes Quaker which was my mother’s heritage .. but when I was in high school my parents and I were confirmed together in the Episcopal Church – St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Murray Hill, New Jersey. We all loved the liturgy, the hymns and the tradition. My parents also enjoyed an occasional glass of wine J in the home of the Canon and his wife whose daughter was one of my closest friends.
I drifted during college in Boston in the late 60’s and for many years after that while living and working in San Francisco in the 70’s and 80’s. My husband Ray was raised in the Presbyterian Church – he too drifted after college and service in the Navy. We drifted, not in our faith but in our active participation in “organized worship”. When my father died and we moved my mother here from Florida, she first lived at Crown Pointe. Sula Grace, Father Mike and Father Belsky were among her first friends upon her arrival here in 1998. When, after “911”, Ray and I felt the strong need to return to a more formal worship setting, All Saints was the place – primarily because of the people and the warm welcome, care and concern they had extended to my Mother .. and to us. The Episcopal Church was new to Ray but thanks in part to the Worship Committee’s introduction of a bulletin to assist those unfamiliar with the Book of Common Prayer, Ray grew to be comfortable with and to appreciate the Episcopal liturgy and the tradition – and we both grew to appreciate and love the people of All Saints.
“Bless-ed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” I was privileged to spend Easter in Israel and to visit the Mount of Beatitudes on the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is thought to have delivered his Sermon on the Mount. The word blessed or bless-ed, which begins each beatitude, is often translated “happy” or “happy is the one who”. But in this sermon, Jesus reveals the meaning of true happiness or JOY. While our circumstances are subject to change, this JOY is rooted in our unchanging Lord. Comfort for those who mourn (Matthew 5:4) implies that though suffering is part of life, it can lead to blessing and JOY.
I – in my mourning – am blessed in the comfort and strength I receive from my God and from so many of you in this parish. Many of you have been so very helpful to me. You have loved me, your neighbor, as you have loved yourself. You have shown a love for me that Christ has shown for you. As a family in Christ we are sharing His love by helping each other, through the good times – the baptisms, the weddings, the recent adoption of little Vivien & William into our All Saints family -- and the sad times – the times of illness or death or through the loss of earthly things, like a job or a home.
In Saint Luke’s recount of the beatitudes (Luke 6:21), Jesus says “God blesses you who weep now, for the time will come when you will laugh with JOY”. I have a hole in my heart and I cry myself to sleep every night, but I’m also full of JOY. A JOY that comes from faith in my God and from this faith-filled community. A JOY that comes from my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. And a JOY that comes from my personal relationship with many of you in my All Saints family. A JOY that comes from my hope in the resurrection and in the life everlasting. A JOY that comes from the freedom I have to express and share my faith .. and my God-given gifts .. in the comfort of a loving God and a loving parish.
Now, how can I channel that JOY and show my gratefulness and THANKfulness to the Lord and to you? How can I share the source of my JOY? Recognizing that I have been saved by grace through faith, not by my works, (Ephesians 2:8-9) doesn’t absolve me of the responsibility to do good works; to do what I can, what I must, with the gifts God has given me.
And speaking of gifts, I’m reminded of another of Christ’s mountaintop discourses – this one delivered to his disciples on the Mount of Olives (a place I also visited) in the days before his crucifixion. In the “parable of the talents” (Matthew 25:14-30) as it’s called in some translations, Jesus emphasizes the need for personal preparation and faithful service to the Master. The talents, large units of money, are distributed to three servants according to their ability. Not all are expected to produce the same results, but all are to be faithful with what they have been given by their Master. Each who produces results is commended by the Master and hears from His lord “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter now into the JOY of the Lord.”
God gives different people different gifts, talents or resources. The issue isn’t how much we have but how well we use what we’ve been given. We are to use our time, talents and treasures diligently in order to serve God and others completely in whatever we do. Our time, abilities and money are not ours in the first place – we are simply caretakers; not owners.
If we want to hear those words –“Well done, with you I am well pleased” -- and who wouldn’t? – we each need to find ways to serve the Lord in accordance with the gifts we’ve so generously and graciously been given and to strive to be good stewards of those gifts by using or sharing them with a JOYful and THANKful heart.
I urge each of us to give or share, as a measure of THANKSgiving for the many blessings we have been given; whether they be obvious or obscure, temporal or everlasting. We are called to serve and our service should be JOYful! A major part of our obedience and service to the Lord is in serving one another. The world can see us as we serve. Our sacrificial service can contribute nothing to our salvation, but if others see how different we are, they will ask why. Then we can tell them about the One who came to save.
There are many ways we can give at All Saints; many ways we can share our “talents”. Whether you’re a Greeter extending a hand at the front door or cleaning up the kitchen after a coffee hour; baking treats for the refreshment table or bread for the Lord’s Table; journeying to New York to serve at a soup kitchen or traveling to Nicaragua to help deaf children; buying a cross in the Pomegranate Shop or inviting a friend to walk the Stations of the Cross; singing in the choir or playing the handbells; folding the Witness for mailing or decorating for Vacation Bible School; preparing a sermon or teaching Sunday school; hosting a foyer group or helping with the rummage sale; trimming trees on the south lawn or stocking shelves at the food pantry; delivering communion to a parishioner in the hospital or making a baby blanket or prayer shawl; underwriting a U2 Eucharist or donating backpacks to the Miller Park school students – there are so many ways we can give at All Saints that allow us to give to others .. in this parish, this community and beyond.
When we give from the heart and we give from our first fruits and we give JOYfully, how blessed we are. Blessed with the hope that when we leave this earth and meet God in His kingdom we may hear Jesus say “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
I know I’m running a little long on time but because the people of All Saints are “all saints”, I want to also take this opportunity, with a JOYful heart, to give THANKs today to: the “seasoned” couple who welcomed me in “their” pew when I first attended several years ago; the 3-year old boy who captured my heart at the first Easter Walk; the delightful young woman who asked me to be her mentor and to share her – and my -- faith journey; the couple who introduced us to Vic’s popcorn and more; the gracious lady who spent lots of time on the phone with Ray answering his many questions about Medicare coverage; the men who lifted up Ray in prayer at the men’s retreat last Fall; the lovely young woman who brought us dinner and shared a bit of herself with us; the many singles .. and couples .. who have extended their support to me, included me in many activities and even launched some new traditions; those I met and came to know in the Oblates classes and at the Lenten retreat at the Benedictine Abbey; the many who served at Ray’s funeral and showed his children and other family members what wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ are a part of our All Saints family; the talented builders we worked with on the Habitat house; the gifted singers and musicians in the choir; the thoughtful woman who invited me to spend my first Mother’s Day without my mother with her and her mother; those who helped design .. and hang .. the “extra-ordinary” J memorial banners; and to Father Tom for his faithful support and prayers for Ray and for my sweet Mother and for me.
I give THANKS to and for each of you, with a special THANK you to Father Tom for asking me to speak today and for giving me the opportunity to share my JOY and to give THANKS to my Heavenly Father who loves me .. and each of you, so very much. THANK YOU!
Kevin Long
Good morning. For those who do not know me I am Kevin Long, and I am thankful to share this communion with you.
I will admit to being humbled by the task at hand and a little bit nervous.
This is a daunting responsibility Tom has entrusted to me, yet I thank you Tom for your confidence.
And so here I am . . . and I’ll start by telling you that I am, like you, a jumble of adjectives.
I am sometimes scared
I am, at times, broken
I am a doubter
I make mistakes
I am a sinner
But I tell you also that Here I am
Uplifted
Curious
Reassured
Faithful
Forgiven
I am on a journey that you may or may not relate to, but in the end I share it with each and every one of you. I am in the middle of my life and the questions of whether I am a good husband, an able enough parent, a truly loving son and brother, and other uncertainties are the hitchhikers I am currently entertaining.
And here you are
Young and old
Nervous and scared
Some alert . . . some not so much
Some smiling . . . some frowning
Some facing the final legs of your journey . . . others the beginning
Some facing utter heartache . . . Some experiencing wonderful joy
Some searching
Some curious . . . some bold
Some certain . . . others not
I see you . . . and you are no different than me. We are just at different points in our respective journey.
And I also see you now wondering what does all this have to do with stewardship and thanksgiving
Well, the answer to that is 100% about being here in communion with you
For many of us, this is perhaps the only place where we can let down our guard
Where a song or prayer can make us speechless
Where our eyes can fill with tears of joy or sorrow and there will be no judgment
Where someone will reach out, grab your hand, & recite the Lord’s Prayer in common voice
Where mistakes can be shared, forgiven, and we can be reassured
Where acknowledgement can lead to tolerance, tolerance to acceptance, and acceptance to respect
Where some of us need support and others are able to provide that support, and those roles can reverse in an instant
And how many of us realize that this is perhaps the only place in our lives where 3-4-or 5 generations can still come together in a common, joyful experience.
I see you . . . just as you see me . . .and I am thankful. I am thankful that I can come here and practice my faith, that you challenge my doubts, support my sometimes misguided moral compass, and send me out each week with a purpose greater than me guiding my actions. It is because of you that I leave here each Sunday filled with that sweet, sweet spirit. It is a rare Sunday when I leave here not feeling better than when I arrived.
You are my stewards. And like it or not we are stewards of each other. We carry a faith tradition that is so much larger than each of us as individuals, and we are called to pass this tradition to generations that follow. Jesus showed us the way, and for 2000 years his love has continued to grow and spread. Jesus did not teach us to be accountable. He taught us to be responsible. And the difference is that a responsible person holds himself or herself accountable. That is the essence of stewardship.
Preparing for this address has caused me to accept that Christian stewardship is the ultimate paradox.
It requires us to be caretakers of something we can feel but not touch
It is something we give . . . yet hope to receive
It is responsibility without ownership
It is selfless
It is faith . . . It is Mission
We know this because of those who came before us.
They saw us first. Before I saw you, and you me. They offered their time, their talent, and, yes, their treasure, so that we could know them and their tradition. Their doubts, their fears, their love, and their faith are in this room today. We can’t touch them but they hold us in their embrace as sure as I am standing here.
They were storytellers, mentors, ushers, greeters, musicians, and clergy. They were scared, broken, and doubtful. They were uplifted, reassured, and faithful. They were imperfect in practice, but strove to be pure of intent. Most of all they were guardians of the faith.
And they were rewarded. The souls of the faithful departed rest in peace because they took the mantle of responsibility and were the best stewards and servants they knew how to be. We are their reward. They saw us long before we saw each other, and they were willing to accept responsibility without ownership. They agreed to be caretakers of something that can be felt but not touched. They were guided by faith, love, Communion. They gave so that we could receive. And I am certain that . . . like them . . . this Communion calls us TODAY to live into that ideal by being the best stewards we know how to be.