The Ven. Richard I Cluett
One of the pleasures in ministry I was afforded when I was with you full-time was to celebrate the annual Altar Guild Eucharist. In May 2006 I spoke to the members about a woman who was an altar guild member at Christ Church in Corning, NY, where I served for nearly seven years.
In the narthex of Christ Church, which is a dark shadowy place, there are some small stained glass windows memorializing, remembering certain parishioners. One window, if my memory serves me, contains a vase of flowers and some altar linens. As you might imagine the window was given to honor the work of the Altar Guild. It was given by a woman who had served on an altar guild for 65 of her then 75 years.
It symbolized her own vocation and the ministry of all members of the altar guild, who carry out the tasks of setting the table, doing the dishes, and arranging the flowers, making the sanctuary beautiful for God and for the people of God.
It is interesting to note that she was a woman of enormous wealth, who in her own home, paid others to set the table, do the dishes, and arrange the flowers. But for the ministry of the altar, for the sacramental ministry of the community of Jesus, no task was too menial, no job too humble. For 65 years she polished, prepared and then put away Holy Things.
I spoke to the altar guild in that little homily about the integral work of the altar guild which is to make sure the linens are cleaned and pressed, the vessels are cleansed, polished and in place, the sacramental bread available, the wine ready to be poured, and the vestments laid out – and in that work there is a privileged discipline, a commitment of time and energy, and a gift of love.
I was reminded of that woman and the service of the altar guild, as well as the service and ministries of so many others in this parish and elsewhere, by the parable in today’s gospel lesson of the two brothers and what it means to do the work of a disciple.
What is it that they say? Something like, “The world is run by those who show up?” Well, the work of a disciple is showing up to do the work of Jesus: feeding, clothing, housing, visiting, holding, praying… touching the lives of those who need them touched – just as Jesus did.
We heard the Apostle Paul write in the Letter to the Philippians, Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross.
Most of what you and I are asked by God to do will keep us far, far, far away from death – even death on a cross. But we are asked to show up and serve – serve God’s people, serve the needs of the kingdom, serve for the sake of the Gospel. It may require a little death of self – selfish interests, needs, and wants, but probably it will not require much more than that.
Roger Lovette, a Baptist minister, tells of the time that his son sent him a bulletin from the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. One Sunday he stood in a long line of visitors to listen to Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school. He stayed for the worship service and sent his dad the service leaflet. There was a notice in the bulletin: Rosalynn Carter will clean the church next Saturday. Jimmy Carter will cut the grass and trim the shrubbery.
It’s not always the one who talks or preaches or teaches or has power who reflects the work of Jesus. Sometimes it is the one who shows up on a hot Saturday afternoon to dust the pews, take out the trash, cut the grass, cook at the meal center, or hammer a nail in a flood home, pray for someone – making the world a little better for Christ’s sake.
And we don’t show up for what we want to get out of showing up and following through on our personal “Yes, Lord.” It would be easy to get that wrongful idea from the Philippians passage, “Therefore God highly exalted him…” There is to be no quid pro quo, no “I’ll do this if you do that.” No, no.
All there will be is the deep down knowledge that we have done no more and no less than what we ought to have done. We have shown up for the Gospel’s sake, shown up for the welfare of God’s people, shown up for building of God’s kingdom, and we have done some of the work of Jesus. We have allowed, for this moment in time, the same mind to be in us that was in Christ Jesus. And that is all we are asked to do, and all that we are able to do will be sufficient for the day.
This is how we will work out our own salvation, because God is at work in us.
But, you know, we are human. We’re not perfect. We have so many demands on us. We have so much for which we are responsible. Sometimes it just feels impossible to show up. Too busy. Too tired. Too worried. Too stressed. Too, too. And we don’t go. Sometimes even if we have said that we would, we don’t. Kind of like that brother. We’re only human, right? There is only so much of me to go around. It’s a matter of prioritizing…
Actually, it is all about prioritizing. Life is about prioritizing. Discipleship, too, is about prioritizing. And we do have the ability to say “No”, don’t we? A God-given ability to make a choice.
Stephen Bayne, a wise bishop and saint of this church wrote: God put freedom into his created universe in order that the universe could respond to his love with an answering love of its own...He put into the created universe a principle of choice; and He paid a two-fold price for that. First, He limited his own freedom to have things his own way. Second, he committed himself to having to win out of freedom what he could easily have commanded as a right. Why did he do this? He did it because God is love and because love needs an answering love of its own.
God’s love of you seeks a freely given answering love. What will you answer? When God calls will you choose to show up?
