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Stories in the Bible give us examples of how God uses people to do God’s work.
What is God’s work? A short answer is this: Creating a world that gets along. Another way of saying this is Peace on Earth. God’s wants peace on earth.

God doesn’t expect perfection. In fact, God expects a little chaos – the whole process of creation is a little disorganized. Have you ever made cookies from scratch and not made a mess? Flour, sugar, egg shells, oops the chocolate chip bag spilled. Creation is a wonderful work in progress. People are part of creation. We are co-creators with God. Sometimes our activities help the world to get along, sometimes not. Sometimes we are good about remembering that God gives the best directions and sometimes we would prefer to go it alone. Who me? Ask for directions?!

God’s work is creating a world that has people who are cared for, loved, and respected. God’s work is making sure the planet is cared for, loved and respected.
Everyone has a role, a job in creating a world that gets along.

Today’s Bible stories are about God calling people to help create a world that follows God’s directions. God calls people you wouldn’t expect. Moses had killed a man and fled the country to escape being killed. He became a sheep herder. Moses probably liked being anonymous. And then, one day while watching his father-in-law’s sheep, he noticed a bush on fire. God had a job for Moses and knew how to get his attention. Moses had an unexpected ministry. He thought he would live out his days as a shepherd. He instead became the reluctant leader of the Hebrew people escaping Egypt and slavery.

We have reluctant leaders today. There are many in this sanctuary. Do I have to serve on this committee at church? I’m sure, God, you can find someone much better qualified. It isn’t a burning bush that most likely gets our attention. It might be a voice inside of us that says get involved in something that has meaning. It might be a person saying, we really need you. It might be recognizing that if it weren’t for teachers, music directors, youth leaders or other caring adults in your life, you would not be the person you are today. God has many messengers and many ways of saying, I love you. I need you.

Paul didn’t grow up thinking he would become an evangelist, a missionary sharing the gospel of Jesus. Paul is the one that was knocked off his horse, blinded by a flash of light. When he came to he heard God speaking to him. Like the man who wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace, John Newton, Paul realized his livelihood of persecuting people was wrong. John Newton realized that being in the slave trade was wrong. God gets our attention in many ways. Those with the wisdom and courage to listen and follow, change the world. Some in big ways. Some in little ways. It all is important.

Most of us do not experience a burning bush or lightening bolt. Many of us, like Lydia and the people along the seashore, encounter others with a personal story. There is something about their person and testimony that says, check this out. When the story is about faith, about God and Jesus doing the unimaginable or making life possible when despair is everywhere, a person in search of hope or miracles, listens. Maybe a person doesn’t even know they are searching. God is sneaky.

When I was in 1st or 2nd grade, I became aware that God wanted me to do something special with my life. I doubt that I would have articulated it that way then. My parents had a rocky marriage. Dad was an alcoholic. There were other issues. I was afraid of my home sometimes.

My sister and I attended liberal Catholic schools. The nuns and brothers, my teachers, introduced me to stories of saints, Jesus and God. They introduced me to friendship and ways of being with one another. Their ministry was not unlike the ministry of our church school teachers. Kind of like Johnny Appleseed, planting seeds of love, acceptance, and purpose, teachers involved in spiritual matters, make forests of compassion possible. One seed, one tree at a time.

When I was little I remember sitting in the living room in a small corner behind a floor lamp. I think I sat there a lot, obviously not hiding but I was alone. That is where I first got this sense that God was paying special attention to me. There was this “something” that reassured me. I recognized this “something” to be God. This call, this leading was quiet and steady. No burning bush, no flash of lightening. Mixed in with all the trials and tribulations of growing up and making big decisions, God found ways to remind me that he was still there, counting on me doing something with my being something. And what that is, is often unexpected.

Many of our Bible stories and our stories of faith beyond the Bible are all about unexpected ministries. God calls us. God gives us Jesus, someone we can recognize, to show us the way. In the story of Paul and Silas in prison, what is the point? There are several points but let’s stick to a few. Paul didn’t expect to do prison ministry as a prisoner. Ministry that revolves around the inclusive love of Jesus is dangerous. Those who depend on there being insiders and outsiders; those whose power comes from exploiting others in one form or another, can’t stand the message of Jesus…unless they too are transformed by the love that welcomes everybody. Until that happens, those whose source of strength and life compass is a compassionate God, shall be persecuted.

Did you notice in the story, Paul gets upset? First he is upset with the young girl tormented by demons relentlessly bothering their come to Jesus meetings. Later in the story, Paul is upset with the authorities who wrongly beat them, put them in prison and then were going to discharge them in secret. Part of being a follower of Jesus is getting upset, being human.

Sticking up for yourself and holding others accountable is also important. In today’s reading, the government’s “powers that be” understood the different kind of power which under girds a faith community. Roman officers apologized. If we can’t do the right thing because it is the right thing, at least we can do it because we are afraid of the consequences if we don’t.

We are all called to ministry, doing God’s work in the world. Ministry is way more than the professional ministry of being a pastor or an employee of a church. Ministry is the way we are with people, what we offer to them. You kids that are in grade school are ministers. You impact the world by how you treat each other. You especially do God’s work when you help others get along. Yo junior and high school youth, how many different ways does God let you know that she needs you? The ways in which you do minister are unexpected to you I suspect. Think about it. Adults – each one of us actually, what are all those activities which we discount as not really important, not really making a difference but – do? Let’s give ourselves some credit for our ministries, those big and small kindnesses, those daring risks taken because we strive to follow Jesus. What about those ministries in waiting?

While serving your church is not the only place of ministry, it is a place and community where God shows up. We have here what is called a shared ministry. Each one of us must be engaged in the life of this church in order for it to be what God needs us to be. CCC cannot afford for us to be Jesus watchers. We need Jesus followers and Jesus leaders.

This Sunday we especially honor those leaders, those many many teachers, high school age through older adults, who have volunteered this past year teaching and facilitating a class or activity. Thank you. We could not and cannot do it without you.

Amen.

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