When the Cold War was still hot and communism still had a grip on Eastern Europe, Queen Elizabeth of Belgium made a state visit to Warsaw. The Polish government assigned her a protocol officer to accompany her to Mass at one of the many Catholic Churches in the city. As they traveled to the church, she asked him, “Are you a Catholic?”
“Believing, but not practicing,” was the man’s reply.
“I see,” she said. “Then you must be a Communist.”
“Practicing, your majesty,” he said, “but not believing.”
Does the officer’s rely strike a chord with us? Do we not also believe things that we fail to practice? And do we not also practice things we no longer believe?
Our Bible reading this morning comes from the letter of James. In this lesson James poses a question for all of us. “How can I see your faith apart from your actions?” That question brings to bear the idea of both belief and practice.
If I were to walk through the room and poll this morning’s crowd, I have little doubt there would be near unanimous consent to the idea of belief. If I asked you, “Do you have faith?” I know nearly everyone in the room would answer my question, “Yes.” And, that is as it should be. We are, after all, Christians. We often profess faith in Jesus Christ with the words we say.
But then, what if I asked you a follow-up question? What if I were to turn and ask, “What are you doing about it?” I fear the answers I would hear would range from, “I pray and study the Bible” to stunned silence.
I must confess, my second question is kind of vague and an answer like prayer and Bible study is probably appropriate because the line of thought would be in a different direction from my intended path. So let me change the question.
“What is your ministry?” Now, for many of us, the sound of crickets chirping would be the only thing we would hear.
As I was preparing this week I ran across a study indicating American’s beliefs about volunteerism. The study found 80 percent of Americans believe people should volunteer. When I read that I thought, “WOW. That is really good. The number is a bit higher than I would have expected.” I continued reading. While eighty percent us believe in the importance of volunteering, only 49 percent of Americans actually do. That number is far closer to what I expected. Busy schedules, long work days, and family responsibilities were among the reasons people gave for not volunteering. The study went on to show, those who volunteered, when they were children, almost always saw their parents volunteering. Those who did not, 78 percent did not see volunteerism modeled at home.
This morning we are continuing our series we began two weeks ago titled “iVow.” This series looks at each of the elements of the membership vows of the United Methodist Church. When we joined this congregation we stood and promised to uphold this congregation with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We began the series two weeks ago talking about prayer. As United Methodists, really as Christians, we are called to be people of prayer. We are called to hold each other up in prayer, we are called to hold up our country and its leaders in prayer. We are called to uphold the world and its people in prayer. Prayer means carrying our concerns to God but it also means seeking divine direction for our lives and the lives and the lives of those we love, which really, is everyone.
Last Sunday we continued the series by talking about our promise to uphold the congregation with our presence. We discussed how that is a two-fold promise. We promise to be here, to be part of worship and other activities of the congregation, but it also means being present in one another’s lives to share our faith and to help each other build our spiritual strength.
We are skipping gifts for now. We will come back to that promise in two weeks. Today we are talking about our promise to uphold our congregation with our service. Today our focus is on our ministry.
When I was in high school, one of my favorite classes was metal shop. I really enjoyed learning to weld, to run an engine lathe and a vertical mill. I wasn’t real crazy about sheet metal work, but I did like working in the foundry, melting down aluminum and brass and pouring it into molds to make decorative pieces. I am not sure I would want to make a living doing any of the things I learned in the class, but I did enjoy learning to use those tools.
Occasionally in that class I would have to heat metal to make it easier to work with, particularly if it had to be bent or flattened or formed into some kind of shape different from its present form. I usually only worked with one piece of steel at a time. That meant I would have to stand around and wait for the metal to heat, then work quickly while it was hot, then stand around and wait for it to heat again. It could be a long, even boring process.
Several weeks ago I was talking to Rev. Kip Gilts about this stewardship series. Kip is the district superintendent of the south district. He shared with me when he was pastor of A&M United Methodist Church in College Station, he started a program called “Irons in the Fire.” He said, he went and talked to a blacksmith. He learned from the blacksmith the importance of having multiple irons in the fire so he always had something hot to work on. He wasn’t standing around waiting for the steel to get hot like I did when I was a kid.
Kip took from that visit the idea that we all need to have at least two irons in the fire. Our irons are our ministries. I would carry that a little further to say we all need at lest three. We need to have at least one ministry, here in our church, at least one ministry in our community, and at least one ministry to the world beyond Diboll. We all need at least three irons in the fire.
I believe in leading by example, but I am also not going to stand up here and tell you all the things I do. Most of them would probably fall into the category of, “That is your job.” I sing cantatas with the choir. It is something I don’t have to do. It is a ministry in our church. I do have ministry beyond our congregation. I help at the school from time to time. I help, when needed at Diboll Christian Outreach. There are other things as well.
Beyond our church I find work at Lakeview is important. I help raise money for “Project Clean H2O” and maintain their webpage. Those are things beyond Diboll where I have ministry.
I also know I am not alone. There is no question in my mind we have people who have one, two or many, many more irons in the fire. And, I am not going to pretend I know all the things you do. I am far from knowing all that. But I do know some.
Many Thursday mornings when I am at Diboll Christian Outreach I look around and see many of our church members and until not. There are others too.
Our lay leader. You probably knew that. What you may not know is what a big job that is. As our lay leader, Gayle is on every committee in this congregation except trustees. I am bragging on all these folks, but I do so as an example. Gayle has a lot of irons in the church fire.
Most of us make our way up here on Sunday mornings to a building that is maintained pretty well. We often don’t find it necessary to take money from the church budget to fix things that are broken, at least not for labor, because there are several people, several volunteers who fix broken pews, change light bulbs, and more.
I could go on. There is Christmas Blessings, Trunk-or-Treat, Back to School Bash and many others. There are many folks in our church who work hard both within the church and beyond. In every case there is at least one, sometimes two, and often more irons in the fire.
For all of you who have many irons in the fire already, thank you. Your service is appreciated more than you will ever know, more than we could ever say. We couldn’t be in ministry without what you do.
The thing is, we are all called to be in mission and ministry. What is your ministry?
That question is what this week’s commitment cards are all about. On this card we are asking you two questions and it actually should have been three so adjust and adapt as you need. First, what is your ministry to or in your church? The second is what is your ministry to our in our community? The third, the one missing but should be there, what is your ministry beyond Diboll? Jesus didn’t say go into just your community and make disciples. He said, “Go into all the world and make disciples.”
There are so many things you can answer for any of the three questions. There are many needs in all three areas.
Within our congregation we need folks to help with children’s church. We are always looking for people to help with that activity. I am sure Daniel would be more than happy to sign you up for serving dinner to the youth one Wednesday night. We need greeters and ushers every Sunday morning. I would love to expand our greeters ministry to have people who can greet new-comers outside. What would it look like if we had, on rainy Sunday mornings, greeters in the parking area with umbrellas to help folks get into the building without getting soaked? We need volunteers with vacation Bible school and children’s Sunday school. Those men who fix things and change out the light bulbs? Yeah, well I seriously doubt they would get too upset if there were more hands joining in the repair fun. There is always something needing done around here.
That list could continue for a while buy I really want to spend time talking about our ministries to our community and beyond. A couple of years ago at annual conference, in her episcopal address Bishop Huie asked all our churches to work with schools to seek out ways we can partner together to assist schools in furthering their mission to education of our young people. Basically, we are asked to invest in the young.
To that end, I am meeting with a man tomorrow to work toward establishing a program in Diboll schools modeled after an existing program in Lufkin called TURN. It is a mentoring program. For us to get the program off the ground will take the help of a number of folks who have some available time during the day. The program will also help with math and reading.
There is more that could be your ministry in our community. Diboll Christian Outreach can find a place for you. I know Bessie and Delana can find a place for you to help out with Christmas Blessings. In case you didn’t know, that is now a community project and not just a church project. Still, the need for volunteers will be ever present.
Both hospitals in Lufkin are almost always in need of volunteers. The needs range from helping at the front desk to virtually every department in the hospital.
I have barely scratched the surface for the needs of our community. The truth is, there is more need than we can possibly meet. Our congregation cannot possibly do everything, but we can all do something. An inability to meet every need is not an excuse for doing nothing. Let’s all find something we can do to make our community a better place and then, I know in doing so, opportunities will arise to let our community see Jesus at work in us.
We are about to come to the Lord’s Table. Use your time at the rail to pray God will lead you to your ministries, to the place where your irons should be in the fire. Then go back and fill out your commitment card. Don’t forget about the missing third question. If you don’t have a ministry in a particular area perhaps something I have said will spark a desire in you. Opportunities abound. Claim your ministry. Put your irons in the fire.
As we seek to begin this work, we may find it frustrating at times. We may wonder if what we are doing is really making a difference. I would challenge you to remember these words of Mother Teresa, “People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway. If you find eternity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.”
