WE ARE ABLE !

Sermon for Proper 24 B (RCL), offered by Nathan Ferrell at St. Luke’s, Westville (Shared Ministry Celebration)

Texts: Job 38:1-7, 34-41; Psalm 104; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45
Themes: Saint Luke, the apostles, walking with Christ
Purpose: to inspire, to encourage
Title: We Are Able

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord: what a joy and privilege it is for us all to be gathered here together on this day – this Feast of blessed Saint Luke – to rejoice together in the goodness of God, and to embark together on a new adventure in ministry.

We come together as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, his students who are learning from him how to live this human life.

We just heard, in our Gospel reading, about the Lord walking along the road with his disciples. They were walking forward into an uncertain and clouded future. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, ask for a special favor from the Lord. Not very unlike them. After all, they are the ones whom Jesus named “the sons of thunder”! Bold and boisterous they tended to be. But in response, the Lord tests their commitment. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” Are you truly able to follow Me, to walk with Me into Jerusalem, into the midst of the struggle that is to come?

Their response is incredible and very enlightening: WE ARE ABLE.

Today, all of us here are walking with our Lord along a new and unknown road, walking together with him into an unknown future. Today, we begin something new. This new Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry. And so today we ask the Lord for a special favor: to bless this shared ministry with success, to bless us so that our congregations can continue to be places of joyful fellowship, powerful worship, and loving service. We ask the Lord to help us to grow in our love for one another, and also in numbers as new disciples are formed by the Holy Spirit in our midst.

In response, we can be certain that the Lord will test our commitment. Are we truly ready to follow him, to walk with him into new paths of service to others, to open our hearts and our doors to those who need hope and comfort and guidance?

The first disciples had no idea what they were committing themselves to at that moment.

But isn’t that the way it always is? When Jesus stood on the shore of the sea of Galilee and called the sons of Zebedee, Peter and the other fishermen to come and follow him, if the apostles could have glimpsed at that moment all that would lay ahead of them because of this one commitment: if they could have seen all of the future joys, challenges, celebrations, and conflicts that lay ahead of them if they accepted his call, do you think they would have walked on with the Lord?

If you have entered into a committed relationship, when you stood there and declared your intentions and your promises for life-long commitment to your beloved, if you could have seen ahead at that moment to all of the joys and all of the pain that this commitment would bring into your life, do you think you would have continued with your promises?

When you first set out on your career path, if you could have seen all the twists and turns that this journey would lead you on, all of the successes and all of your failures, do you think you would have carried on along that path?

By the grace of God, we are never given this glimpse into the future. By the grace of God, we are given a community of fellowship and support where we can ask our elders about their experiences and learn from them, but these insights are always second-hand. We always must make our own decisions TODAY and each day.

The fact of the matter is this: to experience the abundant life that God has planned for us requires commitment. We must step out into the unknown with determination and courage.
You and I are disciples of the Lord in this time and place. And the Lord is asking us this same question as the one he posed to the first disciples: Are we able to drink the cup that he drank, and be baptized with his baptism? Do we really know what this commitment will mean for our future? No, but we do not know. We do not have this knowledge, but we DO have faith and trust and confidence in the one who calls.

By the grace of God, our response is sure: We are able! Praise be to God: We are able!

This past Wednesday (October 14), the Church remembered the life and ministry of the Bishop Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. His life is an incredible story of commitment to God’s calling in his life. Here is just a quick synopsis of his remarkable life: Schereschewsky was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in 1831. He was studying in Germany to become a rabbi when he was given a Hebrew translation of the New Testament.

Through this reading, Schereschewsky fell in love with our Lord Jesus and so he became a disciple of the Lord. Soon, he emigrated to America and he attended the General Theological Seminary in New York City. At the end of his studies, he heard a talk on the need for missionary workers in China and he responded. On the long voyage to China, Schereschewsky taught himself the Mandarin Chinese language. He was ordained as priest in Shanghai and after 15 years of work there, he was elected Bishop of Shanghai. This man worked tirelessly on translation projects: translating the Old Testament from the Hebrew into various Chinese dialects; translating the Prayer Book into Chinese; compiling a dictionary of the Mongolian language.

Unfortunately, after 6 years as Bishop he was afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, and he resigned from his post due to his growing paralysis. However, this saintly man knew what it was that God had called him to and so he continued with his translation work. At the end of his life around the beginning of the 20th century, he hand-typed nearly 2000 pages of the Bible which he translated into Mandarin – WITH ONE FINGER! At that point, only his middle finger responded now to his brain’s commands, but that was all that he needed.

A few years before his death, Bishop Schereschewsky said this in conversation:
“I have sat in this chair for over 20 years. [Referring to his extremely slow and tedious work of translating and typing.] It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted.”

My brothers and sisters, when the Lord called him to a task which seemed beyond his physical strength to complete, he answered: “I am able.” Do you see the kind of tenacious commitment that Christ inspired in his life? 20 years of typing with one finger to finish this project that God had called him to! Was it hard? Of course, but when God calls and when we say yes, then we know with full confidence that God gives the energy needed to complete the task.

Our Teacher asked this of his students as they headed up to Jerusalem: Are you able to drink the cup that I must drink, and to share in my baptism? He was on the way to offer his life as a ransom for many. He came to serve and not to be served. And so today, the Lord asks us this question as well.

Are we able to serve others in his name, to offer our combined gifts, energy, compassion, resources, and talents to serve those around us? Are we able to grow as healthy communities of faith that experience together the abundant life that Christ brings to us?

Yes, we are able! Let’s try saying it together. “We are able!”

We are able, not because we are smart or talented or savvy or gifted. We are able to do this work together, because God has called us to this task. It has required a YES from all of us to get to this point, and if we continue to say YES to this calling, then we can know with full confidence that God will supply what is needed to complete the task.

For we are called here together in order to serve. It was the great basketball coach, John Wooden, who said this: “Happiness begins when selfishness ends.” It was Mother Teresa who taught us so clearly that a life which is not given in service to others is not a life. Bishop Schereschewsky shows us what this kind of commitment means. Saint Luke and the apostles have laid the foundation for us: a foundation of trust, confidence, and commitment. In this place and time, you and I are building upon this foundation, leaving our legacy of following the Lord in paths of service and ministry.

Thanks be to God that we can walk forward along this path together. Amen.