Sermon No. 3

Drop It In Anyway!

It doesn't have to be a perfect pebble

But drop it in anyway;

It will make perfect circles.

You don't have to be perfect

But do your caring with love,

And you will make perfect circles.

The Love in the center

makes the circles perfect.

(Peggy Monroe)

Our scriptures today speak to us of our calling, or vocation, specifically of the vocation of discipleship, of ministry, of living and witnessing for the Kingdom.

The Old Testament is the story of Elisha's call to take the place of Elijah. In the Epistle, Paul calls the Galatians to freedom, but it is not freedom as in autonomy, but freedom from legalism, freedom to become slaves of Jesus, serfs of the Spirit, servants of other people. In the Gospel, Jesus calls us to follow, and it is a call to radical discipleship.

Ministry is not the exclusive craft of the clergy. Yes, I am a minister, ordained to serve you in a unique manner. But dear saints, I am no more a minister than any and every one of you. As Christians, we are all ministers. As members of the family of God we are all Christ's ambassadors, a veritable kingdom of priests! "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests . . ." (Revelation 1:5,6)

Elisha, whose name means "man of God," was a man of many exploits. His resume included parting the waters of the Jordan, purifying a spring near Jordan. And helping a widow pay her debts, promising a child to a childless woman, and then raising the child after he died, feeding 100 men with 20 loaves of barley bread, healing Syrian Commander Naaman of leprosy. God used him mightily.

We see in today's Old Testament reading how very important it is to have a mentor. Elisha stuck like glue to his mentor Elijah. He seemed to know that he would follow Elijah, and that he needed the power of the Spirit he saw in Elijah's ministry.

I have many heroes, some of whose pictures are on my office wall, men like Albert Schweitzer, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Martin Luther King Jr, and more.

I can never match their fame and accomplishments, but I can and do revel in the inspiration of their examples. With the Apostle Paul, they are my mentors.

As Elisha ministered by the power of the Spirit, symbolized by the mantle of Elijah, I pray constantly for the Spirit of men and women who have shown the way by conviction and commitment to the will and way of Jesus.

This is the season in which we celebrate political freedom. Freedom means a lot to me. America means a lot to me. This weekend means a lot to me. The Christian Council, in which Gerald and I are very active, is participating in the Freedom Festival celebrated in Detroit and Windsor, especially this year as we also celebrate Detroit's 300th birthday.

On Sunday night I participated with others to celebrate freedom at St. Alphonsus Church in Windsor. The preacher was Protestant Steve Bancroft, dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in Detroit.

Whereas Elisha relinquished his yoke of oxen to answer the call to ministry, Paul challenged the Galatians to relinquish their yoke of slavery to legalism. He was peeved at them for what he called their backsliding, for abandoning the freedom in Christ for the legalism of former days.

Because the Galatians were mostly Gentile converts, Paul reminded them that their freedom was freedom from lust and sin, not freedom for whatever they wanted to do. He agreed with Jesus, of course, that freedom of slavery to sin must be exchanged for freedom to become slaves to the Kingdom principles of Jesus.

That is what ministry is all about. We are called to serve in the Spirit of Christ. Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus was pictured in conversation with Moses and Elijah. Sort of a reminder of Moses on the mountain talking to God, and Elijah's "ascension."

Do we need spectacular experiences to prepare us for ministry? Do we need a theophany, some dramatic manifestation of God's approbation? Is that what Paul says, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit"? Most of us never experience a Damascus Road epiphany, or hear a voice from out of the cloud on a mountaintop, or feel the burst of divine insight. For most of us, the call of God is the whisper of the Spirit, the challenge of God's holy Word.

Following Jesus is a demanding and challenging call, a call to put his Kingdom first in your life. Jesus almost sounds harsh in his responses to the several excuses given for not accepting the call to service.

One man says, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus did not dissuade him, but warned him of the cost of discipleship: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Are you sure you want to live like that?

He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." That sounds rather caustic to me.

The man's father was probably not dead. He was likely saying, I need to stay with my family as long as Dad is alive. When he dies, then I'll come. In his answer, Jesus emphasized what he said so many times in so many ways: If you want to be a disciple, everything else must be secondary. Period!

Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." That is surely a reasonable request, isn't it? Did Jesus forbid him such a simple task? Or was he telling the man to think carefully of the high cost of discipleship?

When Jesus replied, "No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God," wasn't he saying that a follower must look forward, not backward? Wasn't Jesus emphasizing the importance of making a decision? I think so.

A preacher walked along the seashore with his grandson. They met an old minister. In the conversation, the old minister grunted and grumbled about his troubles. He also had a slight touch of sunstroke.

As they left the old fellow, the lad said to his grandfather, "Grandpa, I hope you never suffer from a sunset!" That bears some thinking!

Jesus was never harsh. So we must interpret his words in context. Jesus did not turn people away, but he made clear that a follower will pay a price.

No wonder these are called "hard sayings" by theologians! Can you imagine a seminary recruiter talking like that to prospective seminary students? When people want to join our congregation, ought we to describe membership in the Body of Christ in terms of the high cost? Do you suppose that might discourage some of them?

It is reported that an ad in The Jerusalem Gazette, in AD 30, read: "Wanted: Disciples. Volunteer position, no per diem, no health insurance or retirement plan, no guaranteed lodging, may experience attempts on your life and slurs on your character. Willingness to travel without notice a must. If interested, be waiting at the city gate at dawn."

As he called many to follow him in days of old, Jesus calls today, "Follow me." Indeed, he calls us to walk down the sawdust trail, kneel at the altar and submit our lives to him. But his call is not to status and salary; it is a call to serfdom, servanthood, slavery, a call to dedicate all we are and all we have to the Kingdom.

So often, evangelists paint the call as a decision between a wholesome, happy, Christian life and one of drunken and promiscuous debauchery. If that were the scenario, the choice would be easy, wouldn't it?

That is not how Jesus pictured the choice. He describes the choice quite differently: "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" Did we not warn people of the end of the world? Did we not teach and preach correct doctrines? Did we not accept and teach the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Best Ways to Live a Victorious Christian Life, the Seven Divine Proofs of Christ's Divinity, the Nicene Creed, the 27 Fundamentals, the 605 Laws of the Fathers . . .?

All good things to believe, to do. But the choice is not between good and bad. The difficult-to-choose choice is between doing and teaching good things, and radical discipleship. For the three who in today's Gospel were good, very good men, it was a choice between their wholesomeness-as-good-and-upright synagogue members. and the absolute wholeness demanded by Jesus, what is described as radical discipleship.

"Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." "No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

That, dear saints, is Jesus' calling today. Not many of us will be called to die for our ministry, like Dietrich Bohnhoffer, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King, and many less famous followers. Not many will be called or qualified to be or become famous like the heroes I mentioned. Most of us are simply called to let our lights shine. Most of us are just called to drop our imperfect pebbles into the pond of society. We are promised perfect circles. If we make love the center of our ministry, we will indeed make this a better world. That is all we are required to do.

It doesn't have to be a perfect pebble

But drop it in anyway;

It will make perfect circles.

You don't have to be perfect

But do your caring with love,

And you will make perfect circles.

The Love in the center

makes the circles perfect.

I can not tell you how you should minister. I can not set your priorities for you. I can not even tell you precisely what you must believe! There are some fundamentals, of course, some moral imperatives which we must accept if we are to be Christians.

God did not ordain me to be a judge. He did call me to faithfully preach truth as I see it, correct doctrines as I perceive them, priorities I believe are Biblical. But how you interpret the Gospel, the good news, is between you and the Holy Spirit. After all, my wife doesn't agree with me on everything . . . but as you have, she has a right to be wrong!

There are some nonnegotiables, some moral imperatives on which we better agree if we want to be Jesus-followers. Jesus did not compromise on the issue of values. His Kingdom must come first in our list of priorities. Unconditional love must be the basis for our ministry, love for the unlovable, the unlovely, the unloving.

Today I urge you to consider very seriously your call to ministry. I urge you to pray for direction; the Holy Spirit will answer your prayers and will make clear how and when and where you should serve.

For the committed Christian there is no tomorrow, no next week, no time for hesitation. The challenge for revolution of heart and mind and soul is now. Now is the day of your salvation. Now is the time for decision.

Let us pray . . .

Lord, today we have considered your call to men of old. We have considered your response to those who wanted to become disciples. We have felt the urgency, the immediacy of ministry. Please show us the way in which we can best serve our fellow human beings in your name, and give us the courage, the wisdom to do so.


	Drop It In Anyway!
	It doesn't have to be a perfect pebble But drop it in anyway; It will make perfect circles. You don't have to be perfect But do your caring with love, And you will make perfect circles. The Love in the center makes the circles perfect. (Peggy Monroe) Our scriptures today speak to us of our calling, or vocation, specifically of the vocation of discipleship, of ministry, of living and witnessing for the Kingdom. The Old Testament is the story of Elisha's call to take the place of Elijah. In the Epistle, Paul calls the Galatians to freedom, but it is not freedom as in autonomy, but freedom from legalism, freedom to become slaves of Jesus, serfs of the Spirit, servants of other people. In the Gospel, Jesus calls us to follow, and it is a call to radical discipleship. Ministry is not the exclusive craft of the clergy. Yes, I am a minister, ordained to serve you in a unique manner. But dear saints, I am no more a minister than any and every one of you. As Christians, we are all ministers. As members of the family of God we are all Christ's ambassadors, a veritable kingdom of priests! "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests . . ." (Revelation 1:5,6) Elisha, whose name means "man of God," was a man of many exploits. His resume included parting the waters of the Jordan, purifying a spring near Jordan. And helping a widow pay her debts, promising a child to a childless woman, and then raising the child after he died, feeding 100 men with 20 loaves of barley bread, healing Syrian Commander Naaman of leprosy. God used him mightily. We see in today's Old Testament reading how very important it is to have a mentor. Elisha stuck like glue to his mentor Elijah. He seemed to know that he would follow Elijah, and that he needed the power of the Spirit he saw in Elijah's ministry. I have many heroes, some of whose pictures are on my office wall, men like Albert Schweitzer, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Martin Luther King Jr, and more. I can never match their fame and accomplishments, but I can and do revel in the inspiration of their examples. With the Apostle Paul, they are my mentors. As Elisha ministered by the power of the Spirit, symbolized by the mantle of Elijah, I pray constantly for the Spirit of men and women who have shown the way by conviction and commitment to the will and way of Jesus. This is the season in which we celebrate political freedom. Freedom means a lot to me. America means a lot to me. This weekend means a lot to me. The Christian Council, in which Gerald and I are very active, is participating in the Freedom Festival celebrated in Detroit and Windsor, especially this year as we also celebrate Detroit's 300th birthday. On Sunday night I participated with others to celebrate freedom at St. Alphonsus Church in Windsor. The preacher was Protestant Steve Bancroft, dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in Detroit. Whereas Elisha relinquished his yoke of oxen to answer the call to ministry, Paul challenged the Galatians to relinquish their yoke of slavery to legalism. He was peeved at them for what he called their backsliding, for abandoning the freedom in Christ for the legalism of former days. Because the Galatians were mostly Gentile converts, Paul reminded them that their freedom was freedom from lust and sin, not freedom for whatever they wanted to do. He agreed with Jesus, of course, that freedom of slavery to sin must be exchanged for freedom to become slaves to the Kingdom principles of Jesus. That is what ministry is all about. We are called to serve in the Spirit of Christ. Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus was pictured in conversation with Moses and Elijah. Sort of a reminder of Moses on the mountain talking to God, and Elijah's "ascension." Do we need spectacular experiences to prepare us for ministry? Do we need a theophany, some dramatic manifestation of God's approbation? Is that what Paul says, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit"? Most of us never experience a Damascus Road epiphany, or hear a voice from out of the cloud on a mountaintop, or feel the burst of divine insight. For most of us, the call of God is the whisper of the Spirit, the challenge of God's holy Word. Following Jesus is a demanding and challenging call, a call to put his Kingdom first in your life. Jesus almost sounds harsh in his responses to the several excuses given for not accepting the call to service. One man says, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus did not dissuade him, but warned him of the cost of discipleship: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Are you sure you want to live like that? He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." That sounds rather caustic to me. The man's father was probably not dead. He was likely saying, I need to stay with my family as long as Dad is alive. When he dies, then I'll come. In his answer, Jesus emphasized what he said so many times in so many ways: If you want to be a disciple, everything else must be secondary. Period! Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." That is surely a reasonable request, isn't it? Did Jesus forbid him such a simple task? Or was he telling the man to think carefully of the high cost of discipleship? When Jesus replied, "No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God," wasn't he saying that a follower must look forward, not backward? Wasn't Jesus emphasizing the importance of making a decision? I think so. A preacher walked along the seashore with his grandson. They met an old minister. In the conversation, the old minister grunted and grumbled about his troubles. He also had a slight touch of sunstroke. As they left the old fellow, the lad said to his grandfather, "Grandpa, I hope you never suffer from a sunset!" That bears some thinking! Jesus was never harsh. So we must interpret his words in context. Jesus did not turn people away, but he made clear that a follower will pay a price. No wonder these are called "hard sayings" by theologians! Can you imagine a seminary recruiter talking like that to prospective seminary students? When people want to join our congregation, ought we to describe membership in the Body of Christ in terms of the high cost? Do you suppose that might discourage some of them? It is reported that an ad in The Jerusalem Gazette, in AD 30, read: "Wanted: Disciples. Volunteer position, no per diem, no health insurance or retirement plan, no guaranteed lodging, may experience attempts on your life and slurs on your character. Willingness to travel without notice a must. If interested, be waiting at the city gate at dawn." As he called many to follow him in days of old, Jesus calls today, "Follow me." Indeed, he calls us to walk down the sawdust trail, kneel at the altar and submit our lives to him. But his call is not to status and salary; it is a call to serfdom, servanthood, slavery, a call to dedicate all we are and all we have to the Kingdom. So often, evangelists paint the call as a decision between a wholesome, happy, Christian life and one of drunken and promiscuous debauchery. If that were the scenario, the choice would be easy, wouldn't it? That is not how Jesus pictured the choice. He describes the choice quite differently: "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" Did we not warn people of the end of the world? Did we not teach and preach correct doctrines? Did we not accept and teach the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Best Ways to Live a Victorious Christian Life, the Seven Divine Proofs of Christ's Divinity, the Nicene Creed, the 27 Fundamentals, the 605 Laws of the Fathers . . .? All good things to believe, to do. But the choice is not between good and bad. The difficult-to-choose choice is between doing and teaching good things, and radical discipleship. For the three who in today's Gospel were good, very good men, it was a choice between their wholesomeness-as-good-and-upright synagogue members. and the absolute wholeness demanded by Jesus, what is described as radical discipleship. "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." "No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." That, dear saints, is Jesus' calling today. Not many of us will be called to die for our ministry, like Dietrich Bohnhoffer, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King, and many less famous followers. Not many will be called or qualified to be or become famous like the heroes I mentioned. Most of us are simply called to let our lights shine. Most of us are just called to drop our imperfect pebbles into the pond of society. We are promised perfect circles. If we make love the center of our ministry, we will indeed make this a better world. That is all we are required to do. It doesn't have to be a perfect pebble But drop it in anyway; It will make perfect circles. You don't have to be perfect But do your caring with love, And you will make perfect circles. The Love in the center makes the circles perfect. I can not tell you how you should minister. I can not set your priorities for you. I can not even tell you precisely what you must believe! There are some fundamentals, of course, some moral imperatives which we must accept if we are to be Christians. God did not ordain me to be a judge. He did call me to faithfully preach truth as I see it, correct doctrines as I perceive them, priorities I believe are Biblical. But how you interpret the Gospel, the good news, is between you and the Holy Spirit. After all, my wife doesn't agree with me on everything . . . but as you have, she has a right to be wrong! There are some nonnegotiables, some moral imperatives on which we better agree if we want to be Jesus-followers. Jesus did not compromise on the issue of values. His Kingdom must come first in our list of priorities. Unconditional love must be the basis for our ministry, love for the unlovable, the unlovely, the unloving. Today I urge you to consider very seriously your call to ministry. I urge you to pray for direction; the Holy Spirit will answer your prayers and will make clear how and when and where you should serve. For the committed Christian there is no tomorrow, no next week, no time for hesitation. The challenge for revolution of heart and mind and soul is now. Now is the day of your salvation. Now is the time for decision. Let us pray . . . Lord, today we have considered your call to men of old. We have considered your response to those who wanted to become disciples. We have felt the urgency, the immediacy of ministry. Please show us the way in which we can best serve our fellow human beings in your name, and give us the courage, the wisdom to do so.