Ephesians 2:4-10
Rev. Peggy Groseclose

In the past few weeks, we have been talking about how we grow in our faith by learning, and worshipping, and praying, and giving. Today we’ll be talking about something that seems to come naturally (when it’s something we want to do), but becomes a challenge when we step out of our comfort zone-and that is serving. What does it mean to serve each other? What makes it different than serving God? Actually I don’t think there is any difference in the doing-except in our attitude and in our heart. Paul writes in Colossians 3:23-24, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for others, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. If we help someone in order to get something back, then we are serving ourselves. But, if we help because it’s the right thing to do, or because you know Jesus would to the same (or better), then you are a server. Our definition of a server is: A server ministers humbly to others. And I think the key word there is humbly…..obedient, not complaining. It’s something that is not in our nature, and yet it’s what God called us to do.

So what does that have to do with music, the music in the title?

The Olympic skater Michelle Kwan said it very clearly as she was talking and coming back from some major injuries. She said, “Know your body and play it like an instrument.” When I heard that, I said, “That will preach!”

The body that I am talking about is the Body of Christ-us. Paul, in I Corinthians 12 says a lot about the analogy of the Body of Christ and the human body. Basically he says that we need all of the body. If your big toe hurts, you hurt all over, and even the least beautiful parts, ears-you know, are needed. If you think about instruments in an orchestra, the same analogy holds. Now, if you’ve ever, on the 4th of July, listened to music while the fireworks are going off, it’s usually the 1812 Overture. And what would it be if they didn’t have those timpani drums booming away in there during the fireworks? Something would be missing, even if one instrument isn’t there.

So God, through the Holy Spirit, gives each of us talents and ability. Now you might think, “I don’t have any special talents.” Well, we had those “I Can” sheets that we passed around last fall. Can you sweep the floor? If you’ve watched the VIM team, they were doing a lot of floor sweeping. Or, hammer a nail…..somebody will tell you how to do it. Ephesians 4:11-12 says: The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ. We are all being equipped to serve. So whether you teach the kindergarten class, or recycle paper, or lead rec league baseball, or direct the choir, or collect trash, or usher, or greet people at the door, or sweep the floor-you are serving others. And when you do it in the name of Christ-or for Christ, and not for yourself-then you are a server. I saw a wonderful example of ushers, I’m not going to pick on you guys, but it was a film I saw about ushers. Some ushers were there just handing out bulletins….handing out bulletins, hello, hello, hello, and other ushers were handing out bulletins and getting to know the people and helping them find the best place to sit where they could see and worship God, and there’s a difference, you see. There’s a difference because one was just doing a job, and one was doing it for Christ. God calls us to be like that in everything we do, to kind of learn to see through God’s eyes, as if we were serving Christ in all that we are. Just as we have learned in the other traits of the Jesus Journey, serving God is also a journey of faith. When we step out in service, we are never the same again, and we mature and grow in our serving.

When I was a teenager in Ohio, we took the city busses to school, to high school. And those were the days when no one was particularly interested in safety, although they had their own way of making us safe-they packed us into those busses with a shoehorn. Three in a seat and people standing beside, to the point where we had to push together in order for the driver to get the door closed. If the driver stopped suddenly, we wouldn’t have to worry because there was no place to fall. Well, I told my parents about it, hoping my folks would fix it, right? My father’s best friend, Matt Pasquale, just happened to serve on the city council, and the next thing I knew, they had me standing in front of the city council, explaining the situation. I just told them my story. We got more busses. For me, that was the first time that I learned that I could make a difference. Throughout my life I had many more opportunities to use the skills that I learned about speaking up and making life better for others. If Al Roberty’s here, he remembers those days when I served as PTA president, and the newspaper called me an “activist.” I complained about school policy, and we got something done. And he was very gracious, by the way.

As I grew in my faith, I learned a lot about God’s understanding of justice and how we as a church can come together and serve God by serving others. It doesn’t have to be one voice crying out in the wilderness, but it’s a community of folks doing and helping and making a difference in this world. The video you saw from the VIM team shows what I mean, as we grow in love….they got to know the lady whose house they were repairing, and they began to learn how to love this woman so deeply. It’s the same thing when I had the privilege of serving on the VIM team to Alaska, and we got to know the people that lived up there and began to understand the circumstances in which they were living in this lost part of the world. We begin to no longer think of ourselves, but we become compelled and impelled to reach out to the others. It becomes a passion, and passion often leads others to move into service, too. Linda Sajko, earlier this morning, talked about serving in the Homeless Shelter and how her husband finally began to serve along with her. He became so impassioned about it, he started telling his brother in Virginia about it, and his brother became so impassioned about it, his brother was an optometrist, and he began to take care of the homeless people’s eyes, and glasses, and needs like that….and just how it spread and grew from somebody’s passion.

Think about Mother Theresa. She served the people who were in the lowest castes, and she lived among them and became part of their community. Her compassion spilled over to people all around the world as others joined her in service too. She didn’t do anything fancy. She held people while they were dying, and she loved them and cleaned up after them, and just made them feel loved. It was a service, and yet because it was a service to human beings of love that they didn’t receive from anywhere else, it made such a huge difference. She became a teacher and a mentor because of her passion, and then others carried on the ministry. It wasn’t just her passion you see, it was God’s passion, and he was using her as a tool, just as God uses each one of us as a tool.

Jesus set the example in John 13:14-15, he washed the disciple’s feet, and then he said: Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. In living out that example, you become alive in a new way. That was the scripture verse this morning, about being alive in Christ. Through serving, you develop a passion for others, and reason for your own life. If you’ve been searching for what God wants you to do, just start serving, and God will begin to show you what your purpose in life is all about. As we read back in the 40 Days of Purpose, Rick Warren taught us that we were created to serve. Ephesians 2:10 states: For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Now, it’s really important for us to understand something. Serving is not something that we do in order to gain God’s love and earn salvation. We already have it when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as lord and savior and confess our sins. It’s done. Serving is what we must do in response to what God has done for us and as a way to show others Christ’s love. It also changes us to be more like the person that God created us to be. Hear these words from James 1:22-25: But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-they will be blessed in their doing. How many times have you heard a word and gone out the door and forgotten all about it, and can’t remember what Barry’s sermon was about last week? (Two weeks ago.) But if you went out and did the devotion, and you began to pray in a new way, it’s going to become and stay a part of you, and change you and grow you.

I want to ask Dina Willard if she could come forth right now and share with you what God is doing in her life through serving...

Good morning. There sure are a lot more of you at the 9:20 than at the 8:00, so I’m glad that I had that group to practice with because I was a little asleep myself. When Peggy asked me to speak today, I had to think back on the journey that I’ve personally taken for the past three or so years. A few years ago I had probably hit my lowest point. My family suffers from depression, and most of my family members have become victims of it. I decided three years ago that I didn’t want to be that. I have worked very hard, together with my husband, and he actually has become one of my pillars and one of my rocks in this journey. But a few years back, when we were both going through this, I started to look at other people and I thought, “Wow, some people’s lives just kind of seem to run along this kind of narrow road, and they might have a little twists and turns, but they seem to get along fine.” I felt like my own personal life was more like a roller coaster through the Grand Canyon with a lot of peaks, a lot of valleys, a lot of dips. When I hit that point in my life, I got on my knees and kind of tore myself down and said, “Ok, God, what do you want me to do? What do you want Roland and me to do with our children?” He led us back to this church, and at the same time we came back to the church, as I said at the 8:00, Barry happened to be doing the Relationship Series. That was amazing. Roland and I turned to each other, choking back tears, and we knew that we had found the place that we needed to be.

So then my next thing was, “Ok, God, now what? Now what am I supposed to do?” There’s a wonderful country music song out right now called Jesus Take the Wheel, and I think that song kind of speaks to all of us. When we let him take control of what we’re supposed to do for him, he kind of takes over, and things sort of fall into your lap, and that’s what has happened to me. Not long after I had that point in my life, the principal at the public school where my own daughters attend called and said, “We have a position open for an inclusion helper,” which is an assistant to the special educator to help special needs children. I had no experience in it, but I took the job, and through that career for the past three years, I have had some amazing experiences with some wonderful, wonderful kids, and they have opened my eyes, and it’s just unbelievable. About a year later, Kathy Pitrat, who I see here, gave me the opportunity to work with the Sunday School Buddy’s program, and that’s a program that we have here at the church that pairs a volunteer with a special needs student so that families who have special needs children who don’t have the opportunity to worship, who have been turned away from other churches because there’s nowhere that they can put their children in Sunday School, can come and we can make sure that they have somebody to care for their children in Sunday School and spread the word that way. That’s my little plug, and hint-hint, we still need volunteers, so if anybody’s interested please contact the office.

Through my service with special needs children at the school, I also can see how much I touch them just through my example. One of the many students that I have happened to see my cross a couple months back, and he said, “You’re one of those church people.” That did make me laugh, but I also thought, “Wow, every time this student can rely on me to help them, he’s also thinking in the back of his head, ‘That’s one of those church people.’ So maybe down the road that little life that I touched will carry over and touch the life of their whole family.” So I don’t always know where I’m going to go or where my journey will lead. I kind of equate it to getting a new prescription for your glasses all the time where you know when you’re prescription’s starting to go, and you can’t really see clearly. Then you go to the doctor, and they give you a new set of lenses, and you think, “Wow,” and it’s so clear, it hurts….that’s sort of where I feel that I am right now, but I also realize that my prescription will change, and I’ll have to change with that. So for right now, I’m committed to this, and I feel that as part of the teleos group that I’m involved with now, one of the books that struck me said that you know it’s the God-driven vision when you can’t stop thinking about it, when you can’t get away from it, and that’s how I feel right now with these kids, and I love it.

One of my favorite verses, which I keep posted on my refrigerator because I’m one of those types of people that needs that constant reminder, is Proverbs 3:5, and it says: Trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go, and he’s the one who will keep you on track. In those moments when I come home covered in bruises with a pounding headache, and I think, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I look on the refrigerator, and I see that verse, and I know that this is where I’m supposed to be.

So that’s just a little piece of where I am right now in my to-be-continued life. Thank you.

Thank you, Dana.
Now let’s get back to music:

A composer sits before a blank piece of sheet music. She gets an inspiration, a tune in her head, and she writes it down. It’s a tune of praise to God. The composer used what she had-a vision, and a pen, and sheet music. She started simply. Now if instead of being a composer, she wanted to be a server. Maybe she has a passion for the hungry. Maybe she just wants to do something. Does she go out and start a soup kitchen right away? Probably not, because she doesn’t have the skills necessary, or the connection. But she starts simply by delivering senior baskets. It’s a job worth doing, and God blesses her ministry as she gets to know the people she’s helping, and they respond with gratitude to God. She grows in her love for the people she visits each month, and her passion and her skills grow.

Now back to that piece of music. She shares her tune, and someone with more music skills adds embellishments, with chords, and maybe a few instruments. What was once a simple tune has become more full and vibrant. Our composer has joined with others. Now the composer, who is serving meals, meets a few other people with the same passion, and together they decide to serve meals at the church once a week. They divide up the tasks, and a new soup kitchen is born. Now, instead of serving 5 or 6 people, a hundred people are served. Her simple service has now become more full and vibrant.

As our composer of this simple tune hands off the tune to others, it, too grows. From the melody and the chords, another person begins to interpret the tune. He may have a passion for it, and creates a musical score, working and revising the melody and creating that full score. An orchestra is commissioned to play the music, and hundreds are blessed by the symphony.

Now as the soup kitchen flourishes, others in the church realize the needs of the poor and homeless, and they, too, bring their gifts and skills to help. Some need training, others have special skills, and a homeless shelter is served, clothes are donated and sent to Appalachia, people with building skills go out into the community (and later the world) to help others. Toys are prepared for Christmas, and a symphony of service comes together because someone used what she had to serve. That’s the orchestra called the Body of Christ, and we all have a part-whether we are serving the needy or serving the church in its many ministries. God plants a tune in our hearts, and we respond. And God blesses the tune.

All of us have a tune. And we need to share it. Where are you serving right now? Where are you stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new, something that God may be nudging you, or you may have a passion about, but you haven’t done anything about yet? It’s never too late to begin. You can start right now. You can take that Welcome Card, even though we’ve already passed the plates around, you can still take that Welcome Card and write “I have a passion for ????, what can I do?” We will help you find that job. I like to give people jobs. Or talk to somebody, and they will help you figure out. You can come up to Denise and say, “I want to go on the next VIM trip,” or Tony Vinciguerra, if you’re here. They’ll give you a hammer and teach you how to pound a nail. How will you give yourself to God, give yourself away, in service?

Take a devotional today and read through it. Maybe that too, will give you a nudge. If you feel hesitant, ask this question: What happens if I’m not there? For instance, if we decided not to bother to come in on Sunday morning, and it was our job to be a greeter, and somebody walked in and wasn’t greeted. That’s what happened to Bill and me when we moved to Harford County and visited Bel Air United Methodist Church. We figured, people will know us because Bill’s uncle was superintendent of the Sunday School, and his aunt was the church secretary. We walked in with our kids, sat right up front, and nobody talked to us. We didn’t come back. But then God has a sense of humor.

Now, you were given something when you came in, and that’s a kazoo. I heard somebody this morning say, “Well, I can’t play a kazoo.” As long as it has that little piece of paper under the grid, you can play a kazoo. Just like Doug talked about, he’ll give you the hint with what we’re going to do about it and show that each one of us can participate in the service of God.