"Discernment - The Key to Thanksgiving"
Dr. James L.
Mayfield November 17, 2002
text: Psalm 66 (in worship read 66:1-7) Today I am going to talk about a personal experience, not because it is unique to me, but because it is so much like what many of us experience. What I hope to communicate or illustrate is that our experiences of profound gratitude and joy are related to our discerning the activity of God and God's grace at work in life and in our lives. Last Sunday, we had a special guest in 11 o'clock service of worship: Vera Agapova, the pastor of Good News United Methodist Church in Volada, Russia. As we sang our hymns, I noticed she struggled to sing our English lyrics much the way I struggle when singing hymns in Spanish. But when we sang "Here I am Lord," Vera lifted her head and sang with gusto. It was obvious she was singing the lyrics in Russian. "Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." As I watched her singing, I remembered what I knew of her life. She had grown to maturity under the tutelage of Communism, and not only had she not see herself as a Christian, she had understood herself to be an atheist. I do not know the story of her conversion to Christianity, but at some point in her young adult years she became a Christian. Perhaps it had something to do with the influence of the man she married. After the Soviet Union broke apart, her husband became more open in sharing his faith with others. This was the beginning of Good News United Methodist Church in Volada. In time, he was leading a small congregation -- some who understood themselves as Christians and others who were interested but had not yet decided about Christianity. The church was just beginning to become a unit when he was killed in a car wreck. Vera had lost her husband; her son had lost his father; and the little congregation had lost their shepherd. All of them were devastated by grief. What were Vera and her son to do? How could the congregation continue? At the time there were less than 10 United Methodist congregations in all of Russia. There were no clergy available to come take Pastor Agapova's place. And so, the people turned to Vera and asked her to lead them. Vera was a relatively new Christian. She was still struggling to learn the Scriptures and to gain conceptual clarity about the faith. How could she be their leader? After a lot of prayer, she agreed to try. It was, in part, a way of honoring her husband, the man she loved so dearly, and it was, in part, what she was convinced God wanted her to do. But she had no training for the task. So, she did what she could. Vera led them by loving them and reading everything she could find that might help her, beginning with all her husband's books about Christianity, the Bible and the church. She was learning as she led. And the little congregation, prospered under her leadership. Last spring, Vera had taken enough courses and mastered enough material so that she was ordained. Last Sunday I watched Vera singing in Russian with joy and enthusiasm: "Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." I watched her singing and I thought about her personal journey. I thought about her ministry having so much in common with the kind of ministry done in the first century when the church was just getting started and was moving among people who knew little or nothing about the Gospel. I thought about her being like the women leaders in the early church Paul mentioned in his letters with such obvious appreciation -- women, without whom, the church would never have become the church. I watched Vera singing and I thought about all she symbolized about the movement of the Gospel across the centuries and around the globe. And while all this was happening, a variety of memories flashed through my mind. When I was 12 years old, a family friend, visited in our home one evening. He had been to the Soviet Union as part of a group sponsored by our State Department to consult with the Russians regarding ways to increase their agricultural productivity. I remember the intensity of conviction in his voice when he told us he was certain that it was only a matter of time until we would be at war with Russia. As he talked about the certainty of that war, I remember my feelings of apprehension. While he was talking, I remembered other stories we had been told by a young man who had been a B-25 pilot in World War II. He had been shot down over Russian occupied territory, and for well over a year had been held by the Russians in something like a concentration camp. He talked about being afraid of his Russian guards and worrying that he might not survive and if he did survive, not being confident he would ever be allowed to return home. As we continued singing last Sunday, I remembered the fear and anxiety I experienced during the Cuban missile crisis. And I remembered the civil defense sirens that screamed in practice alerts. All these memories flashed through my mind as I watched Vera sing, and I was overwhelmed by the awesome reality that here was the pastor of a congregation in Russia, of all places, and that congregation was our partner in ministry. Tears filled my eyes as I watched Vera sing in Russian and heard the rest of us sing in English: "I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry. All who dwell in dark and sin my hand will save. I, who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright. Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?" And as partners in ministry -- Vera singing in Russian and the rest of us singing in English - answered the question: "Here I am, Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." So, when it came time to present Vera the cross our congregation was giving her, I was overcome with emotion. I am convinced it was the powerful emotion of gratitude and praise, not unlike what the poet who wrote Psalm 66 experienced when he wrote: Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise. Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!" If you carefully read that Psalm, you will discover it celebrates God's amazing and awesome activity in the life of the people of Israel. God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. God had led them through the ordeal of the wilderness. God had given them the Promised Land. God had used other nations to discipline them. And God had time and again, reclaimed and rescued them. The heart of that poet was so full of gratitude for all God had done it overflowed into the words of this poem: "Make a joyful noise to God,... . ... "Say to God: 'How awesome are your deeds!'" Of course, we can view history another way. We can look at the history of the Israelites without seeing evidence of God at work. We humans can find other ways to explain what happened to the Israelites. We can find natural explanations for their amazing experiences in the wilderness. We can explain the history of the Israelites in terms of human economic and political power. So could the poet who wrote Psalm 66. But instead, the poet discerned the hand of God was at work in all that had happened, and the poet was filled with awe and gratitude. We, too, can look into our own lives seeing merely accidents of nature and environment and the consequences of our choices. Or, we can discern here and there, now and then, signs of God at work among us and through us. The poet who wrote Psalm 66 and Vera Agapova were able to sing with great joy and profound gratitude because they were aware of God at work in life. This is the key to profound gratitude and joy. The key is our willingness and ability to discern the activity of God at work in life and in our lives. Is our relationship with the congregation of Good News United Methodist Church in Volada, Russia, merely the result of coincidence and accidents? Or can it be that somehow, in ways beyond our ability to comprehend and understand, God is at work in history -- in our history? Can it be that there is something more at work than secular efforts to improve international relations -- something profoundly holy and divine? My tears last Sunday were not the only tears in the sanctuary. Many of us were in touch with the same reality. But were our tears merely expressions of our sentimentality or were they evidence of our discernment of the activity of God at work in life and in our lives? Without denying the sentimental tendency of those of us who cry even at parades, I am convinced that last Sunday what we were experiencing was not unlike the experience behind the writing of Psalm 66: "Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; ... give to him glorious praise. ... Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals." God, enable us to experience the profound gratitude and joy that comes from discerning your activity in life and in our lives. Amen. Pastoral prayer: Let us thank God for the gifts and blessings we have received. We have come here with a variety of concerns and problems. Let us ask God for guidance and help. God, open the eyes of our souls. Enable us to discern your presence in life. Help us be sensitive to the activity of your grace at work in our lives. Protect us from the arrogance that blinds us. Forgive us when we are so intent on taking credit for our little accomplishments that we refuse overlook all you have done. Forgive us when we are so disappointed about not getting what we wanted, we pout like little children, complaining you do not care. Forgive us when we blame you for our pain or when we try to hold you responsible for the hell set loose in our lives by sin and evil. Open the eyes of our souls. Enable us to discern your presence in life. Help us be sensitive to the activity of your grace at work in our lives. Make us aware of the ways your mercy reclaims what was lost and offers new possibilities in the midst of defeats and failures. Give us the insight we need to discern your will and fill us with your grace so that we are motivated and enabled to do it. Help us view life as Jesus was teaching us when he taught us to pray: "Our Father ...."
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