“Grateful Hearts”
Rev.
Thomas B. Cundiff
TEXTS:
Philippians
3: 1-11
Paul’s
Prayer for the Philippians
I thank
my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of
my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first
day until now. I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the
day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me
to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart,
for all of you share in God’s grace with
me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel. For God is my witness, how I
long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer,
that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so
that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
I
Peter 2: 20
For to
this you have been called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an
example, so that you should follow in his steps.
I. A Grateful Heart
A popular book among clergy, released just a few months ago, is titled
“Resilient Ministry”[1]. This
topic of resilience is a “hot button theme” among ministers. It seems that everywhere I turn this subject
is coming up.
A recent publication, Weavings,
sub-titled Resilience[2]
-- and I particularly enjoyed an
article, “Gifts from the Holy Resilient”,
written by friend and colleague Steve Doughy. Other interesting articles were “The Resilience of Vincent van Gogh”, and a Lenten / Easter poem
titled, “Crop Rotation”, by Amy Houchen:
In the dormancy of lent (Easter and Spring--my words)
We can take our cue
From fallow fields, lying vacant
But not abandoned
In order to become
More fruitful.
In these forty days,
We can ask
To be emptied
Of our attachments
To
the past, which can make us brittle as Lot ’s wife
To
our possessions, which can weigh us down like the rich young ruler
To
preference for head over heart, which can harden us into Pharisees
So we have room
For the harvest
Of Easter life.
Like the earth around us evolving through another spring, so is
our call to be resilient not just in surviving spring storms, but, through
faith, growing and maturing to be more fruitful in our lives with our families
and community and in our church.
A retired pastor from Seattle, Earl F. Palmer has said, “resilience
is defined as the ability to upright ourselves when stresses move in all
directions, but what about resilience when feelings are extreme and the actions
of angry or highly excited people are extreme too?”[3]
What about resilience in our personal lives when the world is pounding
on us like a migraine headache -- crumbling in all around us like an earthquake? What about our need to “upright ourselves”, as Palmer says, when there seems to be no hope
for better days?
In short, resilience as a theme is about more than survival when
it comes to sustaining healthy lives, productive relationships, a healthy
family or church. We want more out of
life than simply surviving the obstacles and issues – the storms and pressures –
the migraine headaches – that are part of life God has given us.
We want to be well. We want
to be happy! And in the name of God
with faith in our risen Lord, we can find the resilience we need to not only
survive the storms but to thrive amidst them.
II. JESUS
RESILIENCE
While I have been thinking about this, I
realized the best example of resilience is found in Jesus himself. Look at all stresses and strains Jesus had to
put up with in his life; his resilience amidst turmoil in lives of people all
around him he encountered – ways he helped people move beyond their
infirmities.
Jesus was always engaging people who were
struggling with health issues—many simply trying to survive. Society was always working against the health
and wellbeing of a large number of people who didn’t have basic core resources in
which to live. While he had a host of
followers – disciples – many more outside his circle of friends were skeptics or
standing against him. Jesus had to be resilient in the face of adversity. He taught others how to be resilient in the
face of adversity. He shows us how to be resilient in the face of adversity.
When reading our bibles, we see the resilience Jesus
had in facing evil and sin and brokenness in the world? And as a church and his name look at the evil
and sin and brokenness, the poverty and crime, the apathy in lives of people
around us? Can we pick up on the strength of our lord who
went to the cross and died and then rose from death so we can get through trying
times?
The ultimate test of “resilience” for Jesus came not with his
death but rather, God deciding to raise Jesus above the power of death live and
be with us today as our RISEN LORD. The ultimate
test of resilience for us is in accepting Jesus into our lives so we can thrive—SO
WE CAN THRIVE—as children of God……knowing that with persistence, faith, and
some Christian resilience—we can get through anything!
The Apostle Paul would say we get our resilience from Christ
himself who helps us face the powers and
principalities that drag us down and threaten to defeat us. The challenge in our lives today is recognizing
that Jesus Christ continues to live in and with and around us to guide us
through the various storms and stresses – sin and evil forces in life we encounter. God has given us an Easter gift that is the
foundation of resilience: Jesus Christ
who not only died on the cross but rose from death, ascended to be with God so
that we can know that he, our Lord Jesus walks with us today.
Directly emerging from reading our scripture this morning we find
two individuals, Peter and Paul, who learned from God and their faith in Christ,
what it means to be resilient in the face of turmoil and stresses of life that tear
at the fabric of beliefs and traditions held sacred for most if not all of us
in our church and in our lives.
Paul calls us to find and be resilient through prayer in holding
God in our hearts knowing nothing can take away that which God has placed in
our hearts—GRATEFUL HEARTS.
Resilience is something we have nurtured as a church down through
the years. If the church can face
adversity, so can YOU!
From my perspective, our resilience as a congregation is
commendable. With all the changes in
this community, we have proven as a church we are interested in not just
surviving—but also thriving! It may seem
we are just surviving, but I don’t believe this to be the case. The energy expended in keeping this building
and the grounds in tip-top shape is but one example. I hope you will take note of all the tree
and bush maintenance, the work that has been done in painting various
rooms…..and while we still have major projects, we are slowly whittling away at
a large list. We should all accept the
fact that roof leaks and various maintenance issues will always be with us in a
huge building that is over 100years old!
The simple decision you as a congregation have made over the years
to remain in this downtown neighborhood has demonstrated your commitment to the
children in this community …
For example, over a dozen years ago we opened our doors to the East Side Soup Kitchen….a powerful collaboration in
serving the poor that we continue to support to this day. And when the soup kitchen moved to a new
home, the much needed Hunger Solution Center, a new opportunity emerged in
collaboration with St. Mary’s and First Ward Community Center and others in
bringing to our church what is now called the Mark Neumeyer Youth Center. A full-time after-school program during the
school year and day camp in the summer.
Fifty to sixty kids benefiting from this program. The core decision you made as a
congregation: If we are going to have
this wonderful asset of a church, it needs to be used. And used it is! And part of our mission is to let others use
this building RENT FREE !
(REFER TO INSERT)
There are other groups using these facilities, Women of Color’s
who are here Thursdays and Saturdays with a wonderful mentoring program for
girls and boys.
And yes, another program, meeting every Tuesdays downstairs, the
Kappa Youth Leadership league sponsored by the Saginaw Alumni Chapter of Kappa
Alpha PSI Fraternity—with the help of Sidney Diggs
providing much of the leadership for this group of young men. (And please note, Sidney and members Kappa Alpha Psi and this
youth group will be with us in worship to share with us some of what they are
doing on June 2nd.)
Not only have we as a church figured out how to broker out use of
these facilities to be used in supporting programming for children, the mission
team with the help of Debbie Davis continues with the SUMMER MAGIC program that
will take place Tuesdays in July. I am
sure some of you will be called and asked to help.
YOUR resilience in never abandoning the need to serve children in
this community has been steadfast and unwavering. MY HEART IS GRATEFUL!
IV.
To move in one last direction in thinking about our scripture
today and this text and words from I Peter:
For to this you have been
called, because Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
We have faced adversity as a church and found ways to be resilient
– to thrive when everything in this community seems to be working against
us. We need the same resilience in our
personal lives. The church can be a
model for us in living our lives. As the
church has faced obstacles, so we too can get through anything in our personal
lives, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Christ was born and lived his life giving us many gifts—the most
precious gift is life itself. Jesus died
on the cross for our sins. He died so we
can move forward and thrive in the face of adversity – because Jesus gives us
all we need to be resilient in the face of adversity. Jesus rose from death promising never to
abandon us. He ascended into
heaven. And our Lord now watches down
upon us as we make plans for the future walking – always -- in the steps of our
Lord.
I have a grateful heart for the many ways God has blessed us. Together, may we continue to face adversity
with strength and love, with grateful hearts, with compassion and resilience
that comes only from God.
As I guess I say almost every Sunday, may God continue to bless us
in the ministries and work we have been called, together, to do….in the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord. With grateful
hearts!
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