Grace and Peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Several years ago, I had a dream about a parishioner who had become inactive in my parish in Parkville, I hadn’t seen this person in at least two years. St. John’s was a huge parish and we didn’t always get around to following up with folks who stopped coming. Now, I can’t recall anyone mentioning this person name around the time I had the dream. They simply appeared in the dream and they looked anguished.
I ignored the dream. Weird stuff happens in dreams. However, for the next several days her name kept coming up in conversations with long time members who knew her. It was odd. It was very odd. At last I realized that God wanted me to call on her and so I did. I just called her on the phone. She was overjoyed to hear from me and she had contracted a life threatening illness. She was embarrassed about being absent from worship for so long and so she hadn’t contacted her church.
Just a dream, I suppose. Could it have been the Holy Spirit, whom we confess in the Nicene Creed as the “Lord and Giver of life”, directing me to visit her? As people of God, the only answer that makes sense is that God was behind the initial dream about her and the subsequent nudging in the form of conversational reminders.
Today is the church’s festival of the Baptism of Jesus. Jesus marks his ministry from that date and event. Notice how St. Luke describes it. “Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily from like a dove”. A voice also comments on this action and obviously this voice is God’s. God says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”.
On Christmas Eve, we read also from Luke about an angel appearing before the shepherds, the heavens likewise open and a “multitude of the heavenly host”, that is a whole tribe of angels appear. Heaven is God’s abode and we are to understand from St. Luke that God was authenticating Jesus as the Messiah, and letting the world know that the Holy Spirit would be directing Jesus ministry.
This is a good Sunday to talk about our ministry, because we too are ministers. Now you may say “That’s easy for you to say Pastor, you have been ordained and God has called you to be a minister”. That’s true, I am. But it is no less true for you. Have you ever noticed when we have a baptism here, I put my hand on the head of the baptized and I say, “Pour out your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the Sprit of joy in your presence”.
We all have a ministry. If you are a nurse, your ministry is a ministry of healing. It involves dispensing medicines and therapies, but it also has a spiritual dimension. Many people in hospital beds have lost hope that they will get better. Sometimes their condition is both chronic and perilous, it is entirely possible that if they lose the will to live, they could die. A nurse is called on by God to rekindle hope. They are to share the miracles they have seen, to remind their patients that God wants them to fight for life, that because of God their fight makes sense. God calls them to listen compassionately but also to gently rebuke their patients if they become morose and despondent. They do so by reminding their patients of the need others have for their companionship and love. In the face of sometimes terrible pain, they are to coach their patients to endure and to forebear.
In our present crazy climate where the name of God had become hateful in the public arena, there are still ways to help people get in touch with their spirituality. It requires some skill and tact, but in reality such people are often desperate for hope. Asking them for their permission to share your faith and to accept your prayers for them often opens doors. We can always pray for them without their knowledge and this is a part of every Christian doctor or nurse’s ministry. God alone is the healer.
Perhaps the ministry of a nurse may seem obvious, but do we have a ministry as a salesman? Of course you do! God calls on you to encounter the folks you sell to as people as well. There are people with hurts and hopes, needs and dreams. We live in a world where everything is about volume and making every minute count, but treating your customers as people who have souls is also amazingly good business. There isn’t a person on earth who doesn’t have pains of some kind, old wounds that are unhealed, fears for their children, or doubts about a benevolent future. God calls you as a spokesperson of the divine, to encourage people and to communicate the hope that we all share in God because of Christ.
It also means not selling people things they don’t need. Being a Christian salesperson means not cutting corners and being scrupulously honest. Earning people’s trust requires time and a willingness to sacrifice present gains for future goals. It may mean taking back some products that have become outdated in order to demonstrate that you care about and have a stake in your customers continuing viability and prosperity. It also means quietly praying for the people you encounter. All of us, no matter what your vocation are called to be as Luther was so fond of saying, to be a little Jesus to our neighbor in need. We are not only not to do something that would harm our neighbor, but also, whenever possible, do what will help our neighbor and enhance their life.
Jesus said of the Spirit: “The wind blows where it chooses, you hear it’s sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Sprit”. Jesus says these words to Nicodemus. We can’t predict the Spirits movement, but just like the dream I had or the repeated mention of the parishioners name I was to see, we can hear and feel the traces the Spirit leaves in our midst. More importantly, we can follow the Sprit’s trail.
So, May you be attentive to the Spirit who is God among us. May you move with the Spirit and listen to it’s nudging. And when the Spirit calls you into ministry, may you not resist, but flow with the Spirit of God whose love sustains the whole earth.
In Jesus’ name Amen.
Who We Are