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FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT – 02 APRIL 2006 ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33 “You gotta get a glory” “Father, glorify your name.” These seem like odd words for a man about to face death by crucifixion to pray to his God. And yet as we listen to Jesus, who served the will of his heavenly Father, who trusted the healing purpose of God and paved the way for us to follow with his life, we hear in this prayer the heart of the Jesus message: God is glorified when those who trust God live according to God’s purpose. What God desires is a life fully lived. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.” It doesn’t glorify anything. “But if it dies it bears much fruit.” Two weeks ago this congregation once again bid “farewell and godspeed” to former pastor Frank Heglund and his wife Phyllis. They are moving to the state of Washington to be near daughter Priscilla and her family. In his remarks to the congregation Pastor Heglund, who served St. Paul for 12 years and then in the Rocky Mountain Synod office for 19, referred to the resurrection hope in John’s gospel; he also quoted a poem he’d memorized some years ago, a poem that clearly holds great meaning for him in his personal as well as his professional life. It’s a poem about glory that goes something like this: You gotta get a glory in the work you do, (his voice thundered) A Hallelujah Chorus in the heart of you. Paint or tell a story, sing or shovel coal, You gotta get a glory or the job lacks soul.
The great whose shining labors made our pulses throb, Or the men who got a glory in the daily job, The vision might seem gory or the odds unfair But the men who got a glory never knew despair.
When you get a glory it is like the sun And you can see it shining through the work you’ve done. Fame is transitory. Riches fade away. But when you get a glory it is there to stay.
Oh Lord, give me a glory and a workman’s pride For you gotta get a glory or you’re dead inside. Getting a glory happens when what we do comes from the heart of who we are, -- when we DIE to our own agendas and live as God created us to live, as God intends. There is so much fascination with things “extreme” these days – extreme sports, extreme makeovers, extreme fashion, the extreme lengths nations and their leaders go to justify themselves. When I think of the cross and it’s extremities, it is easy to see how when we go to extremes we lose sight of the heart, we become removed from the center of our faith. A life lived fully thrives not at the extremes but at the intersection of a relationship with God and a relationship with people. It is centered in the cross, what one early mystic called the “womb of faith.” A life fully lived “gets a glory” – bears much fruit. I do not own any recordings of the music of U2 but am fascinated by the person of Bono. Among other things he is a spokesman for the ONE campaign, and is currently trying to persuade the US to give an additional one percent of its budget to the world’s poor which would more than double the current expenditure. I understand that he has other more controversial agendas he has yet to disclose. For me the most interesting facet of Bono is his connections with persons in very high places, and his message that flies in the face of the power in those places. Bono is very clear about his purpose, and very clear that he isn’t trying to be something he’s not: “I’m no man of the cloth – unless that cloth is leather.” In a recent book of conversations with Bono, author Michka Assayas quotes Bono as saying he isn’t nervous when meeting with those persons in high office. “I think they should be nervous because I’m representing the poor and wretched in this world. And whatever thoughts you have about God…most will agree that if there is a God, God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. So these politicians should be nervous, not me.” Could it be that Bono’s got a glimpse of the glory in the work he does? … Today we will commission three women to be Stephen Ministers at St. Paul Lutheran Church. Over the past two years we at St. Paul have been engaged in a process of awakening to God’s desire, God’s mission for St. Paul Lutheran Church as we turn 115 years old and focus on ministry in the 21st century. Through the dialogs of that awakening process it became clear that there was a need and a desire for an expanded caring ministry. The Stephen Ministry program is a long established caring ministry by which trained lay people provide support and partnership to folks during times of challenge or crisis in their lives. Jan, Terry and Nancy have met weekly for the past several months under the leadership of Stephen Leader Laverne Griffith developing skills for listening, caring and referral, reflecting on their own strengths and weaknesses and helping one another become clear about the boundaries necessary for caregivers and care receivers. They have heard the call to step forward for this ministry, and have shown themselves to be gifted for the responsibility of lay caring ministry. They have made a two-year commitment to serve on our behalf. We are blessed to receive their gifts, and we pray that God will be glorified in their serving. May they get a glory in this work they’re commissioned to do! We too can be involved in Stephen Ministry in a variety of ways.
“And I, when I am lifted up,” Jesus assures us, “I will draw all people to myself.” The days of Lent are quickly drawing to a close. Next Sunday we begin the Holy Week trek, facing with Jesus the crowds of Jerusalem and the cross of suffering, the tomb and its glorious emptiness. In some ways the marks of these days can be considered by some to be extreme: the condemnation of an innocent man, his death on a cross, the pain of his mother’s grief and the confusion of his followers’ faith. Movies like THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST make vivid the extreme pain and chaos of this journey. Yet all these unfold not in the extremes of doubt or fear – they happen from the heart of God’s compassion, in the midst of the grace and healing love which always and in all ways makes all things new. Soli deo Gloria -- To God alone the glory… |