NUCC

February 5, 2006

Epiphany 5

Isaiah 40:21-31

Mark 1:29-39

            Today we are installing officers of our church.  These are important people!  They are our leaders!  They are doing a great service to us and to God.  Some of those being installed today are taking on a new responsibility.  This is the first time they have served on a committee or taken on a ministry.  Others are being “recycled”.  They have served before.  They took some time away from this kind of service.  Now they have come back to serve as leaders of our church.  Today we give thanks for both groups of people.  We are glad for their willingness to serve.

            I reflect on these “Servants of Christ” today as I also reflect on the two scripture lessons just read for us.

1.         Isaiah 40 – Speaks to us of renewed vigor and strength ----- strength to march on and serve.

“But those who wait for the LORD

shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint.”

2.         Mark 1 – Also speaks to us of renewed vigor and strength ----- first for a mother in law who recovers from illness through the healing of Jesus and then from Jesus who recovers from the crowds by going to a lonely place and then feels ready to go on with his ministry.  A cycle of service.

What do I see?

1.         I see a cycle ---- a move in and a move out ---- a time activity and a time of recovery ---- a time of action and a time of rest ----- a time to move forward and a time to remain still.

            Think of how Jesus must have felt.  Mark gives us a bit a feel for the hectic pace and constant scrutiny Jesus was under.  “The whole city was gathered around the door,” we are told.  Everybody wanted to see this amazing man and what he was doing.  But even Jesus could only take so much.  He had to get away from it all.  He went to a “lonely place” and prayed.

            Think of yourself.  Perhaps you are a person loves to be active.  You consider it a privilege to serve here at church or at school or on a community group’s board of directors.  But there are times when you have had it.  And you need some “R & R”.  We’re all different in these needs.  Some of us need more private space than others.  I believe that is just how God made us.  Some of us truly need to be in charge.  Others of us shy away from leadership and would rather take orders.  That’s just how we are.  But all of us in some way are in this “cycle of service” ----- sometimes up, sometimes down.

            Today I particularly think of a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Yesterday would have been his 100^th birthday, but he didn’t even come close to that because he was hanged in a Nazi prison on April 9, 1945 at the age of 39.  Bonhoeffer was an intellectual.  I suspect that he loved to sit and read books, engage in scholarly discussions, and write down his thoughts on paper.

            But Bonhoeffer also felt called to a life of service.  Even though his family wasn’t particularly religious he felt called to the Christian ministry.  For a while he served as a “Deacon” in the church.  The word deacon is Greek for “servant” or “minister.”  That’s what you Deacons and Deaconesses are.

            A very meaningful time in his life was a year spent in New York City when he attended the Abyssinian Baptist Church and learned how the black church particularly was combining praise and service.

Bonhoeffer saw the black church as a true expression of his concept of sanctorum communio, a Christian fellowship of love in action, of people existing for others. Through his encounter with the everyday existence of black people in Harlem, Bonhoeffer became a sensitive critic of American racism. This deepened his resistance to German anti-Semitism. He returned to Germany with the black church in his heart as brothers and sisters in the communion of saints.    E. Forest Harris, Sr.

            When Bonhoeffer went back to Germany he helped to found a school for pastors, a renegade school not approved by the authorities.  At his school in Finkenwalde, a community of prayer and service was formed.  Prayer and work.  Contemplation and action.  But eventually Bonhoeffer was called from this quiet place to serve as a courier for the resistance to Hitler.  In spite of his pacifist beliefs, he willingly participates in efforts to smuggle Jews and, yes, overthrow Hitler.  For this he was arrested and executed.  Today we remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “cycle of service.”  And we give thanks.

            Today we participate in our own little version of this “cycle of service.”  After all we are in a “worship service.”  Today we are celebrating the sacrament of holy communion.  As we do so we remember Simon’s mother-in-law who served in her home by presiding over a meal.  For her it was an honor to serve.  In fact a matter of prestige and distinction.  She was, after a fashion, one of the first deaconesses.

            Today as we celebrate communion a group of men whom we call deacons and women whom we call deaconesses will have the honor of serving our meal.  They are helping us in the cycle of service as we come for refreshment and strength to the table of our Lord.  Sometimes a church will have what I call a “self service” communion, where people just come and take the bread and the wine or juice at any time for themselves.  To me this misses an important point.  As followers of Jesus we are called to serve one another, not just ourselves.  When I was in Germany several years ago, the pastor of the church and I were the last ones to partake of the bread and wine.  The German pastor kept waiting and waiting.  And finally I got it!  He was waiting for me to serve him.  And then he could serve me.  Our own little cycle of service ------ serving one another.

            Here is our invitation today.  As we worship in this service we take some time out for refueling, so to speak.  Then as we leave worship (yes after the pancakes!) we will go to our families, jobs, and places of volunteer service.  In fact our Deacons and Deaconesses will be thinking about the shut-ins they are assigned to visit --- as they serve not just in worship but also outside of worship.

            We do this in the name of the God of Isaiah who promised strength and renewal to the weak and faint.  We do this as followers of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, who himself sought strength in prayer for his own service to a needy people.  In this service we rejoice!