Family of God
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Treasure
Let us Pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Amen.
When looking at the lectionary of this week’s Gospel I saw that the main theme of the gospel was, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus taught us to be not like the Rich Fool like last week’s lesson, who wanted to store all the harvest for himself. Instead, give to others and you store a treasure in heaven, which no thief can steal, no moth can consume it.
The beginning of the gospel it starts with, “Do not be afraid.” Just like the first reading where God tells Abram, “Do not be afraid.” What this is telling us, is that God has something to say to us about his mighty deeds. God wants to give us his Kingdom. Just a thought, maybe we are living everyday in God’s Kingdom.
God’s treasure isn’t something we earn by just doing good deeds and making sure we look good to others who see us. It’s not something we earn, but a gift. A precious gift. We participate in the growing and building of the Kingdom of Heaven by not merely by good works, but also by joining the “beloved community” as Martin Luther King called it. To me the Kingdom of Heaven has become a life of wholeness and well-being out in community. It is still important for me to do works of justice and compassion like a mission trip or serving at feed my starving children, etc… I was just on a mission trip with 11 amazing people. Whom stepped outside their comfort zone to serve our brothers and sisters in Milwaukee. I’m going to read some excerpts from our blog online:
This morning we started our day with a trip to the Adullulam center, where we learned about the mission of the building and we got a tour. After that we went to our service sites where we helped at Project Concern, a church group that runs a food shelf and has other supplies for people of the community. When our group got there we were asked to help an elderly woman weed her garden. We had a really great time getting to know the woman and her husband, and were glad that we got to help them out. After we did the weeding, we went back to Project Concern and helped unload their supply of food for the week. Then we helped go through each of the boxes to make sure that the food was still good for the community.
Today group Dragoste (Stacey) went to St. Ann's Adult and Childcare facility. We first met with the volunteer coordinator lady, Delma, and she gave our crew a tour of the childcare side of the building. Here we decided which classrooms we wanted to help out in (Today and Thursday). Breanna went with the 0-6 month year old babies, Mya was with one year olds, Kelsey with four year olds, and myself with two year olds. As a group we seemed to agree that our favorite part of the morning was the innocence of these kids we met. Then we ate lunch around noon together, a bag lunch we made that morning, and then we got back to work. Before working with the older crowd, we were introduced to Sister Lucy who put us all to work, carrying donated furniture through the building for their future projects. After awhile, we finally made our way to the Disabled Adult aide of the campus and started to bond with them and help make them comfortable for movie time. When we come back Thursday we'll be split into their two gathering rooms, one for people with Dementia and Alzheimers, and the other with people who have a mental illness, Down syndrome, or schizophrenia.
Today I think our biggest take-away was that a simple smile may be small, but it can go a long way.
We went to help serve the community at the local soup kitchen called The Gathering. We carried in supplies and then we had delicious soup. The ingredients were generously donated by the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. There is one instance where Jim, soup kitchen supervisor, let someone in the soup kitchen early for him to eat his dinner before he called 911 because he had just gotten beat up by someone pretty badly. He needed his dinner before going to get checked out. It felt good that we helped so many people but it was also humbling to realize that we have it super easy compared to other people who are just so thankful to have just this one meal.
Today we went back to St. Ann's, I was in the 0-6 months room(the Peacocks), Mya was in the elementary age(the Lions), Amber with 2 yr olds(the Meerkats), and Kelsey with the 4 year olds(the Giraffe's.) When I was in my room I got to feed the kids, play with them, and rock them to sleep. We were with the kids until 12pm then we had our lunch. Mya was invited to eat lunch with her class so she did. Then after lunch we went to the other side of the building to be with the elderly. Mya and I went in the room that was for people who had Dementia and Alzheimer's, while Amber and Kelsey was with everyone else. Mya and I met Mr.Brown who welcomed us and talked with us the whole time. Mya, Stacy, and I played balloon volleyball with the Dementia patients. Then we helped with their snack. Afterwards Mya and I took some of them outside to get some fresh air for an hour. Then Mya and I helped move patients to the other room with the other elderly people. It was a fun day at St.Ann's but because of our relationships built and the story's we have heard it was tough for us to say goodbye without any tears.
The impact that our students had in Milwaukee was great I loved every moment. But that is not what I wanted for them. I wanted them to make an impact on themselves. To start thinking beyond themselves and looking where they can be of service. So those of y’all who are confirmation age and getting there. Pastor Paul and I don’t sit in our offices and think of way to torture you to make you do stuff for Sunday School or confirmation. Writing worship notes or service hours. It is our calling as Christians to worship together in community and for us to go out and be ready to serve where our gifts lie.
Because you see, Jesus is telling us, in verse 35, I am coming and he wants us to be ready to serve. We don't know exactly when. He wants us to be ready to serve.
We want everyone to be ready for when Jesus comes to be with us. It is our duty as a Lutheran church and what Martin Luther called the priesthood of all believers that we serve. That when we exit our congregational doors that we are entering a mission field.
Some of y’all are probably saying yes!!! Bring it!! Some of y’all are probably going you can't make me.
It's not about me or this church it's about you and God. It’s about God using each one of us somehow and someway. God used the most obscure people in the bible to spread his word and do His work.
We are not perfect people and God used unperfect people all the time. But like in the first reading with Abram, by faith they kept going. By faith, we need to keep going. By faith, we need to serve. By faith, we need to step outside our comfortable box and stretch ourselves.
At the end of This gospel reading I wish they would have included the 41st verse. Because it's a question that Peter asks Jesus. I love it because it gets straight to the point of what I am preaching about. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” Jesus answered, “Yes.”
Amen.
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