At General Convention this summer, I gave an address that generated some heated response, mostly on a couple of blogs. I spoke about the great Western heresy of individualism, and the false understanding that anybody can achieve his or her own salvation just by believing the right things, without having any concern for one’s neighbors. Christianity keeps urging us to remember that we are all part of a larger body, and that what good we enjoy is the gift of grace. I’m afraid I wasn’t clear enough, for some people heard me saying that the faith journey of the individual is unimportant. But these readings, and what we’re here to remember and celebrate here today, are about the same primary issue: can I, all by myself, be in right relationship with God without caring about my neighbors?
Samuel is trying to figure out what’s going on in the middle of the night. Finally, after several tries, Eli realizes that God is speaking to Samuel. Samuel apparently couldn’t figure that out all alone – he needed somebody else to help. Paul is saying the same thing – that he planted seeds in Corinth, but Apollos watered them, and God helped them to grow. Neither of them alone is responsible, but together, with the grace of God, growth happened. And Jesus reminds his disciples that some of them sow and others reap, but there is no harvest unless they’re all at work. The labor of all of them is essential.
We’re here to remember and celebrate the ministries of all the baptized – laity, deacons, priests, and bishops together. None of us is the producer of the harvest we enjoy or see around us. Yet we live in a society that continually tells us that we sink or swim on our own efforts, that the fruits of our labor are our personal possession, that if we’re hungry it’s our own fault, and that if we don’t have access to health care, well, it simply can’t be the responsibility of everybody else.
The Reign of God, the mission of God, needs the gifts and ministries of all God’s people, even if some of them don’t realize it just yet! Samuel’s call needed Eli’s nurture in order to bear fruit. Who helped to plant fruitful seeds in you?
I’d have to start with the consciousness that the Sacred Heart nuns in my convent school planted a lot of seeds in me, and that the one that’s probably borne the most fruit had to do with the idea of vocation. Now for little girls in the early 60s, that most certainly didn’t mean ordained ministry! It meant a life of faithful listening and response to the call of God, as a lay person. There were other seeds, too, a few of which turned out to be rather weedy, like “you mustn’t play with Protestant children.” But vocation, and the idea that each one of us has gifts, even unique gifts, which God gives for a purpose – that one did take root.
Jean and Bernard Haldane planted some related seeds in this field in the mid 1980s, when they invited a group of unemployed or underemployed Episcopalians to think about how those gifts were expressed, in the form of what they called “good experiences,” times when we felt most alive. What gifts were being used then? That sense of liveliness, even connection with the cosmos, has a great deal to do with recognizing the holy that’s being expressed in you, the reflection of God’s creative spirit. The people who made these vestments, and the banners here, and those who are making this music know how to put their particular gifts to work.
We can see that immense creativity, that spirited flow, all around us when we look – and those gifts express the glory of God, whether or not they’re explicitly used in worship. But gifts like that also get expressed in passionate speeches in Congress that challenge others to care about the poor, to care about kids who don’t have adequate schools, or the injustices of our penal system or our immigration system. And passion is often a clear sign of that kind of gift, for it’s something that gets us beyond ourselves and our own narrow self-interest.
Centuries ago, Irenaeus said “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” He was talking about that passionate expression of God-given gifts. Where have you seen somebody on fire? Almost without exception, it’s an expression of those unique and godly gifts. Those gifts can be used for good or ill, and sin can be understood as a misuse of a gift. After all, gluttony is an excessive fondness for the enjoyment of food or drink – a good gift. Adultery is a misuse of another. Some of the great spiritual teachers talk about this as the “right ordering of our loves or passions.”
Can you name two of your own gifts? Can you think of ways in which you’ve put those gifts to use in holy ways? By holy ways I mean ways that build up, that help to heal or make whole. We talk about the seeing the reign of God or fruits of the spirit or the kingdom of heaven through signs like peace, justice, reconciliation, beauty, goodness. How does one person’s love of order help to heal the world? Maybe by helping others to sort out their financial mess, maybe as a credit counselor. That’s ministry.
One credit counselor isn’t going to bring in the fullness of the reign of God, but a significant opportunity is lost without that person’s ministry – in other words, that particular field may not ripen. And that credit counselor may not discover that field in which to labor without Elis to help. I wouldn’t be engaged in this ministry without people who helped me to hear. After I preached my first sermon as a lay person (on this reading from Samuel), somebody afterward tapped me on the shoulder and said, here, look at this sign: “Are you hard of hearing? Audio assist devices available.” We can be hearing aids for others.
We need the gifts of others to help us discover our own – the watering Paul talks about. Who has helped to nurture your gifts? And how have you helped others discover theirs?
This faith of ours says that we are all essential – that God counts the hairs on our heads, and loves each and every one of us. We also insist that God gives gifts to each, gifts that are not always evident or showy, and in some people those gifts may not be discovered for years and years. I saw a sign on the subway the other day, reminding passengers to cede the seats in either end of the car to the disabled if asked, and to remember that not all disabilities are visible. Well, even what this culture calls disabled can be understood as a gift. I wonder if Steven Hawking would be quite so intellectually creative and productive if his body were like others’. Ministry in the name of Jesus is very much like that – the use of all of what God has given, whether sought or unsought, for the healing and wholeness of the world. May the harvest be bountiful, in season and out, all to the glory of God.
What gifts do you bring to the harvest? Where and with whom will you labor?
