Bishop Elaine Stanovsky - Installation Sermon
Celebration of the Assignment of a Bishop
St. Andrew United Methodist Church
October 12, 2008, 3 pm
"What's in your pocket, wallet, purse, backpack?"
Bishop Elaine J.W. Stanovsky
Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16 (Psalms for Praying, Nan C. Merrill)
Romans 12: 1-2 (NRSV and The Message, Eugene Peterson)
John 6: 1-14
Let's take stock of this day in history. According to the Julian calendar, today is the
anniversary of King Cyrus the Great's conquest of Babylon in 539, thus ending the
Babylonian Exile, and allowing the Jewish population to return to Jerusalem and rebuild
the temple. This is the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landfall in the Bahamas in
1492. And it is the anniversary of the Columbus Day storm of 1962, a rare Typhoon that
lost its way, ravaging the coast of western Washington, causing a power outage on my 9th
birthday. It is the birthday of Mark Wendle, a certified lay minister giving pastoral
leadership to the United Methodists churches in Noxon and Heron, Montana, as well as
Clark Fork Idaho. It is the anniversary of the declaration of war by the Dutch Boer
Republic in South Africa against the British colonial government in 1899, starting the
Boer War; a struggle rooted in a heretical teaching of racial supremacy that led to the
doctrine of Apartheid. It is the 10th anniversary of the kidnap and murder of Matthew
Sheppard in Laramie, Wyoming because he was gay.
It is good to be here today, with people who are growing in the ways of love and grace
and peace. It is good to be here today to remember and rekindle our love of kindness and
truth and justice. It is good to be here.
My message today is a message of abundance. God has given us what we need to thrive.
Strange time for a message of abundance, after the worst financial week in the history of
the US stock market. As banks close and fore-close, and we all watch our savings
plummet with disbelief. With the threat of global warming turning into a reality season
by season. With gas prices still high, and energy awareness and anxiety peaked. Despite
these undeniable realities in the economy of faith, we can enjoy abundance even in
circumstances of scarcity.
In The United Methodist Church we say that the mission of the church is to "Make
disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." My call, election,
consecration and assignment as bishop of the Denver Area are all expressions of this
mission. I come here as a disciple of Jesus Christ, to invites others into discipleship and
to work with people of good will of every faith to transform the world to reflect the love
and the promise of God.
We say that the United Methodist Church is a "connectional" church. Together we will
rebuild the connection from the ground up, as we turn again to one another to grow in
faithful witness and service.
God wants to work wonders in partnership with the peoples of the earth. God created us
to be partners in wonder-working. We know this. It is the theme of the Bible. Oh, God
can work wonders without us. But the central drama in the Bible is God working
wonders through the people of the earth. Time and again God chooses people to be
agents of life, of love, of redemption. Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Ruth, David,
Samuel, the prophets, Esther, Mary, Joseph, John, the disciples, Paul. Time and again,
the Bible tells us that God turned to ordinary people, as wonder-working agents. And
God is not amused when we presume that God can do it alone and our part isn't really all
that important.
Every generation is called to carry the gospel to a new generation. This means that we
are missionaries, evangelists, teachers, care-takers, prophets in our time. God counts on
us. God tugs and prods and empowers us.
- To learn the teachings and traditions of our faith
- To encourage one another on our lifelong journey of faith
- To keep the disciplines of the faith:
- Do no harm
- Do good
- Love God
- To teach our children - all children - that they are beloved of God, worthy of love, and powerful to change the world
- To give expression to the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ in every aspect of our living.
When Jesus found himself out in the countryside with a crowd of hungry people, he gave
us a powerful model of what it means to give leadership in the community of faith.
- He might have taken on the responsibility for feeding the people. He might have
had the disciples gather all the money they had between them and run to the
nearest town to buy as much food as they could. This isn't what the bible says he
did. In fact, the bible says that he tested his disciples with this option, by asking
them how they would buy food to feed the crowd. But he never thought this was
the right solution.
- He might have performed a miracle, and produced food out of nothing to feed the
people. This isn't what the Bible tells us happened.
- He might have followed the advise of his disciples, and sent the people into the
surrounding communities and countryside to forage for food. But this isn't what
the bible says he did either.
- Instead, he turned their attention away from himself. He turned them toward one
another, telling them to sit down in small groups. Then he invited the crowd to
discover the abundance of sharing. The bible says that he took what one boy
offered, 5 loaves and 2 fish, he blessed it, and gave it to them to eat.
Now, I don't know what happened that day, when they began dividing the meager rations
to share among the multitude of people. But my theological imagination tells me that as
Jesus sat the people down in small groups, in little faith circles, and they looked at one
another, and received the meager gift of the young boy, they all reached into their own
pockets and pulled out the provisions they were carrying for the day. Nobody that day
left home and headed out into the countryside without a little something. There were no
corner stores where they could pick something up. I must have been the habit of the day
to carrying a crust of bread and a dried fig wherever they went.
The miracle might have been that they shared what they had. The miracle might have
been sparked by the offering of one boy.
Today, in a time of economic disaster, really; in a time of political uncertainty; in a time
of religious confusion when we experience both Christian triumphalism and Christian
timidity, WHAT'S IN YOUR POCKET? Are you willing to share?
If you are. . .
If you are willing to share your own story of forgiveness,
If you are willing to share your own experience of grace,
If you are willing to share your own hope for the future,
If you are willing to share your own sense of wonder at creation, your curiosity about God's amazing and far-reaching family,
If you are willing to share the way God has worked in your life,
If you are willing to offer your gifts to help others,
If you are willing to welcome a bible study into your home, or to muck out the mud left after a flood or a hurricane,
If you are willing to share the truth about your faith and your doubt,
If you are willing to build bridges to persons of other faiths and other cultures,
If you have a heart for the poor,
If you have head for numbers,
If you can hold the hand of sick person, or cradle a baby in your arms,
If you can tell a story to a child, or lead a choir, or serve a meal to a homeless person,
IF YOU KNOW THAT YOUR LIFE IS A GIFT, AND YOU ARE WILLING TO
SHARE IT – GOD HAS A MISSION FOR YOU! The salvation of the world just might
depend on us.
God isn't waiting for you to prepare a banquet, or to complete your PhD, or to even to
make your first $million. God is inviting each one of us into partnership today, just as we
are. God has already made us worthy! Bring what you have to the table, and see what
abundance we have when we share!
God has been very good to me. I have enjoyed many blessings from the church in my
life. I am a product of the church as it taught me that Jesus loves me, and that I am part of
a world-wide movement to alleviate human desperation. I was raised in Vancouver First
United Methodist Church in Vancouver, Washington, near Portland, Oregon. All my
aunts and uncles and living grandparents were in that church. Sunday School melded
into family potluck seamlessly. I was raised through Sunday School, Vacation Bible
School, Youth Group, Summer Camp, United Methodist-related college.
I remember hearing Hillary Clinton address the United Methodist General Conference
here in Denver in 1996. She told us to keep doing what we do. She reminded us how
important the church is, how important Sunday School is, how powerful it is to teach
people that they are loved and that they have a purpose in their lives. I am a testimony to
the way the church can introduce a person to Jesus, and nurture them in faith and in
leadership; engage them in service and witness.
As I enter this area, and begin to work with you, I bring all that I am and all that I have
received to the challenges before us. And I dedicate myself to continue to grow in the
knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, so that I never cease to have new gifts to share. As
your bishop, I will invite you again and again to recognize and to receive the abundant
gifts God showers on your lives. I will invite you to follow and learn from Jesus, and to
practice the disciplines of the faith. And I will invite you to share what you have of your
time, your gifts and your treasure. I will never ask you to share what you don't have, or
what you can't spare. But I will invite you to step out into the uncharted waters of
wonder, where a modest meal turns into the abundance of God's riches.
Do you feel my sense of urgency? It isn't panic. Don't mistake it for panic. Panic
comes when there is a need that we feel powerless to address. Urgency comes when
there is a need that we have the means to respond to. I hope you have a sense of spiritual
urgency. Because there is need and we have the ability to respond. Here, let me open my
pockets.
What's in your pocket, your wallet, your purse, your backpack, your heart, your head?
What wonders is God ready to work if we will just share what we have? Don't hold
back. God can't do it without you. God has prepared you for just this day. There are
people who haven't heard the good news, who don't know that they are the light of the
world. They are waiting to hear it from you in word and deed.
So, here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary
life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it
before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing
you can do for him. . . .Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the
inside out. God brings the best out of you. (Excerpts from Romans 12, The
Message, Peterson)'
IN SHARING IS ABUNDANCE. THANKS BE TO GOD.
