Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

February 29, 2004

Text: Isaiah 42:5-10

Today and next Sunday I am going to be talking about what it means to be the church. In the New Testament, the word we translate as "church" is ekklesia. The literal meaning of the word has to do with "being called out" or "drafted."

Some of the men in this congregation know what it is to be drafted for military service. I do not remember hearing any of them talk about their being drafted as having been chosen for special privilege. They were drafted, called out of civilian life for the purpose of military service to the nation. When the Bible, speaks of "God calling" someone it has this same meaning of being drafted or called out for special responsibilities.

To be sure, there are blessings that come with being drafted by God, but the blessings are directly related to carrying out the purposes for which we are called. Those of us who have been involved in special ministries such as mentoring or hands on housing or one of the mission trips, have been involved in serving, but more often than not when we talk about our experience we speak of the blessing we received. It is in being who we are created to be and in using our gifts as God intends that we experience in a profound way a sense of fulfillment, and to have a deep sense of fulfillment is to be truly blessed. This kind of blessing in our lives is not a possibility as long as we misuse and fail to use our gifts in ways that please God. As long as we fail to be the persons God created us to be, we are unable to experience this blessing of profound fulfillment.

This, more than likely, explains why some who have reached a place in life where the world calls them a success feel unfulfilled, restless, even depressed. The fulfillment God intends for us is directly related to our being the persons God intends us to be doing what God intends us to do. Our lack of fulfillment may well be a symptom that we are seeking fulfillment in the wrong way. It is in being the persons God calls us to be, doing what God has drafted us to do that we discover our fulfillment.

And if we read the Bible with any sort of care, we discover that being the persons God intends doing what God wants, is not achieved in isolation. Just as there is great truth in the saying: "It takes a village to raise a child," there is great truth in this declaration from our confirmation service: "All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which (the church of God) alone supplies."

Now, I assume we are all at a level of maturity where we know these words do not mean: "You've got to be a church member in order to go to heaven when you die." That kind of thinking is not only immature and superficial, it is wrong. There is no magic that happens just because we are listed as members of an organization that calls itself a church.

What is essential for being the persons God intends us to be doing what God intends us to do, is our being part of a community of faith that invests itself in discerning God's will and being open to God's grace. Jesus Christ is at the heart of this community because it is through Jesus we discover both who God is and who we are meant to be.

Discerning what is revealed in Jesus requires a community of faith because when we try to go it on our own, in a kind of "do it yourself" Christianity, it is not long until we are shaping Jesus to be what we want him to be, blessing what we want blessed, valuing what we value. We need the community to hold us accountable and to protect us from ourselves so that rather than us shaping Jesus, what is revealed in Jesus shapes us. We need this community of faith; this community our heritage has described as "the Body of Christ." We need these people who are the Body of Christ to help keep us clearly focused on the one who reveals the way, the truth and the life.

This community of faith that is rooted and centered in all that is revealed in Jesus Christ, is the kind of community everyone needs. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the grace which flows through this community.

According to the passage we read this morning, we who claim to be the church, the new Israel, are the people God has called or drafted to be a covenant to humankind. We are to be a light to the nations. We are to be the people through whom God is made known to others. We are to be the Body of Christ in the world. We are to be the ones whose words and deeds are so permeated with the grace of God that our living is a cause for hope rather than another reason for cynicism and despair. It was to the people who are the church, the community of faith following Christ, that Jesus said: "You are the light of the world. ... Let your light so shine before all humanity, that everyone may see your good works, and seeing the way you live say: 'Thank God!'" This is what Isaiah was talking about when he wrote we are to be a light to the nations.

Last week our youth led us in singing: "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord." God only knows how many people are blindly stumbling their way through life. The passage we read tells us we, the community of faith, are called to open the eyes of the blind. Just as an eye doctor skillfully uses instruments to restore eyesight, God works through the people of faith to open the eyes of hearts, so that persons are able to see life as never before, and able to sing as never before: "I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see." We who are the church, have been drafted to be used by God in opening the eyes of the blind.

The passage we read also tells us that we have been drafted by God for the purpose of opening doors so that those who are trapped, merely surviving in the various dungeons we humans create for ourselves and others, are able to walk out into the light. There are all kinds of prisons we humans create for ourselves and one another, so that rather than being really alive, we merely survive, existing in a spiritual darkness using up the limited time we have between birth and death and exhausting ourselves day after day chasing mirages of fulfillment that evaporate in the heat of life before we can reach them. Rather than walking through life in the light, we stumble along day after day grasping at shadows in the darkness, trying to make our lives matter. To the people of God, to the community of faith, to the church, the Body of Christ, God says, "I have drafted you, called you, to open doors for people who are trapped in the darkness, living in sorts of bondage."

Because what holds people in bondage is often types of injustice that are rooted in systems we have designed or that have evolved from apathy, we who are the people of faith, we who have been drafted by God to set people free, find ourselves called to the struggle of changing the way business is done, and changing laws that have been made or passing laws that need to be made. In order to open the doors for those who are imprisoned, the people of faith often find themselves negotiating, mediating, intervening not in their own self-interest as much as on behalf of those with the least power and the weakest voices.

We who are the church, are those God has drafted, called, to live their lives in the service of loving God and their neighbors. We who are the community of faith are those who know in our hearts, the focus of our living is not to be on ourselves but on the grace of God revealed in Christ, and what that leads to is a view of life and a way of living that involves us in spending ourselves loving others as God in Christ has loved us.

When we are truly the church we know we have not been called or drafted by God for special privilege but for special service. And, the amazing thing is, that in our doing the service God expects, we discover it is a great privilege -- this privilege of being a servant who is truly needed, and by the grace of God makes a difference in life. It is in living this life we discover our deepest fulfillment and find ourselves truly blessed.

God, enable us to be the church, the community of faith so focused and rooted in Christ that we are the people you intend us to be, doing what you want us to do. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:
God, teach us to pray. Free us from all that tempts us to play games with you and with ourselves. Give us the faith to trust you so completely we are free from any temptation to try to hide anything from you-as if that were a real possibility. Teach us to pray with complete honesty. Help us face the fact that just as we need to invest time with persons we want to be our friends, we must invest time with you in order for us to have a significant relationship with you. Help us do that. Motivate us to make the adjustments we need to make in our daily routine so we will regularly set aside time to talk honestly with you and earnestly try to discern what you have to say to us. Teach us not only to be open and honest as we talk to you but also to be still and quiet as we try to hear you speak from deep within the depths of lives. Teach us how to do more than merely recite words when we pray; enable us to pray honestly from our hearts, especially when we pray this prayer Jesus taught us: "Our Father ...."