October 2, 2022
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
Found Faithful Series
1 Kings 17:8-16; John 6:1-13
Faithful in Little
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
“God is in the details.” This saying is attributed to the American architect Ludwig van der Rohe. He meant that when you inspect the finer details of an architectural design, that’s when you catch a glimpse of something sublime. That discovery uplifts the human spirit.
When I walk into our church building in the mornings, as I make my way across the parking lot, my eye typically moves to our distinctive steeple and the unique cross design at its top. Especially in this crisp, fall air, when the sky is vividly blue and against wispy, white clouds, I can understand what van der Rohe meant.
God is in the details. Nothing is too small to reveal divine activity at work around us.
We hear today two stories from the Bible about people who shared small things. Their generosity in small things resulted in outsized results.
During an extended drought, a widow from the foreign region of Zarephath shared what little food she had left in the world with the prophet Elijah. She had just enough food left to make one more meal for her young son and herself. But when she prepared that food for Elijah, her supply of flour and oil sustained the three of them until at last the rains returned.
In the reading from John, a vast crowd of people numbering 5000 people were gathered on a lonely hillside. A boy offered to share his lunch to help feed everyone there. It wasn’t much, only five small pita loaves and two cooked fish. But when Jesus blessed the lunch and the disciples dispersed it, there was more than enough to feed everyone there.
The widow and the boy were both faithful in little. What they had wasn’t much, but they were generous in sharing it.
God is in the details. I think of the many ways we are called to be faithful in little ways. We mow the neighbor’s yard when they’re gone; we make food for a friend when they’ve had surgery; we make weekly phone calls to an elderly friend. My husband Dale had an aunt Judy who never forgot his birthday or our anniversary. Judy was known for sending cards to all her nieces and nephews. Now that she’s passed, Judy’s daughter Brenda has taken over this action
They’re little things. But God is found in the details. How much is our tired, old world sustained by these small acts of kindness? The smile in the grocery store, helping someone carrying a big load, giving someone the benefit of the doubt, including the outsider into a conversation. They’re all very little things. But they’re not little to the person who receives them.
Next week we’ll be celebrating Quilt Sunday. All year our cheerful group of quilters have met on Tuesday mornings. They cut and they sew small scraps of fabric together. By themselves, the pieces don’t amount to much. But when they’re put together and then tied off, suddenly those little bits become something grand. We’ll see the results of their labors decorating our pews next week. And it’s always nice to have that little bit of added cushion on the backs of our hard, wooden pews, so enjoy it! Our quilters are faithful in little.
Today our confirmation youth have begun collecting plastic. It’s mind-boggling just how much of our things are wrapped or bagged in plastic! I’m always happy when our plastic project comes around in the fall. Each week our members bring their “flimsy plastic,” as we call it. Then on Wednesdays our confirmation youth bag it all up and weigh it. Every week we keep a running tally on the white board outside the sanctuary.
We each bring our small bags of plastic, and before you know it, we’ve gathered 500 pounds of it. Uff da! We thank Festival Foods for offering this program. In return for collecting the plastic, we receive a very nice, sturdy bench made of recycled plastic. We donate the benches to Luther Park Bible Camp. When I’m up at the camp and I see the benches, I always feel so proud.
This will be our fourth bench, which means that we will have collected a ton of plastic. Just think of it! And we’re just a small drop in the plastic ocean.
And the plastic is in the ocean. Plastic products get cast off and then blow in the wind. They travel downstream and end up in our oceans. Then these plastic bags and bottles and all manner of flotsam travel in the ocean currents until they gather into huge floating islands of plastic. The largest of these is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s located between Hawaii and California.
Does it seem to you that there’s more plastic than there used to be? There is! I read on the UNESCO website that in the last 10 years we’ve produced more plastic products than in the previous century. Wow! In regards to the plastic in the oceans, it’s estimated that by the year 2050 the plastic waste in the oceans will outweigh all of the fish in the seas. It’s a sobering thought.
And that’s just the plastic we see. All of these plastic products break down and erode into very tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics. These microplastic particles are in our waterways and in our drinking water. They’re ingested by marine life. They’re in plankton and shrimp and on their way they go up the food chain. These microplastics are everywhere.
And plastic is nearly indestructible. It takes about 500 years for plastic to break down.
It’s such a huge problem. How do we take care of this earth? What can we do about pollution? What can we do about global warming and all of the ramped up weather catastrophes it causes?
It may seem like a small thing to gather 500 pounds of plastic wrappers to recycle it into a bench. But the solution to our environmental stewardship will be found as each of us is faithful in little. The answer to global warming and pollution doesn’t lie in one big drastic change. It will require all of our small changes together. It will take all of us working together, making choices in transportation, in what products we purchase.
We’re planning to develop a Green Team here at Hope. N___ H____ is leading the charge. Our hope is for this Green Team to look at ways we as a congregation can discover ways to be mindful and faithful in our care of the earth. If you are interested in knowing more about this Green Team or you want to be involved in it, talk to N____ or me.
Faithful in little. One aspect of our fall stewardship emphasis involves our Time and Abilities sheet. Each household should have received one. It takes all of us getting involved and participating in our ministries to help us be faithful to our overall mission. The things you help with might not seem like much, but it takes all of us being faithful in little:
• making bars for funeral luncheons
• reading scriptures in church
• operating the PowerPoint on Sunday
• being a confirmation mentor
• serving on The Community Table team
• volunteering for Trunk or Treat
• constructing beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace
That Time and Ability sheet signifies the many ways each of us can be faithful in little.
One last thought: the little boy willingly shared his lunch on that crowded hillside. But before the bread and the fish could feed 5000 people, it needed to be presented to the Lord. That is what we do when we are faithful in little. We present our gift to the Lord, we dedicate our actions to our Savior’s divine purposes. We bring the gifts, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, they are transformed into something much more substantial.
Thank goodness, God is in the details.
