Naming Our Gifts
Community: Living as Followers of Christ. This is the theme for our worship during the month of July as I begin my journey with the people of New Visions Community UMC. The Blog below is the written version of the second sermon in that series: "Naming Our Gifts"

“Once there was a rabbi named Zusya who loved God with all his heart and soul, and who treated all God’s creatures with respect and kindness. Rabbi Zusya studied Torah, kept Shabbat, visited the sick, and praised God for all the goodness in the world. Though he was not a rich man, Zusya gave generously to those in need. Students came from far and near, hoping to learn from this gentle and wise rabbi. Zusya often told his students, “Listen to the still, small voice inside you. Your neshamah will tell you how you must live and what you must do.”

Each day Rabbi Zusya”s students came to the House of Study, called the Bet Midrash, eager to learn what they could from him. One day, Zusya did not appear at the usual hour. His students waited all morning and through the afternoon. But Zusya did not come. By evening his students realized that something terrible must have happened. So they all rushed to Zusya’s house. The students knocked on the door. No one answered. They knocked more loudly and peered through the frost-covered windows. Finally, they heard a weak voice say, “Shalom aleichem, peace be with you. Come in.” The students entered Rabbi Zusya’s house. In the far corner of the room they saw the old rabbi lying huddled in bed, too ill to get up and greet them.

“Rabbi Zusya!” his students cried. “What has happened? How can we help you?”

“There is nothing you can do,” answered Zusya.  “I’m dying and I am very frightened.”

“Why are you afraid?” the youngest student asked. “Didn’t you teach us that all living things die?”

“Of course, every living thing must die some day,” said the Rabbi. The young student tried to comfort Rabbi Zusya saying, “Then why are you afraid? You have led such a good life. You have believed in God with a faith as strong as Abraham’s. and you have followed the
commandments as carefully as Moses.”

“Thank you. But this is not why I am afraid,” explained the rabbi. “For if God should ask me why I did not act like Abraham, I can say that I was not Abraham. And if God asks me why I did not act like Rebecca or Moses, I can also say that I was not Moses.” Then the rabbi said, “But if God should ask me to account for the times when I did not act like Zusya, what shall I say then?”

The students were silent, for they understood Zusya’s final lesson. To do your best is to be yourself, to hear and follow the still, small voice of God.” (From Partners with God by Gila Gevirtz)

 Christian teaching suggests that God sends each person into the world with a special message to deliver…a special song to sing for others…a special act of love to give. No one else can bring our message, sing our song, or offer our love. Only we can. We are taught—in the words of Paul which we read today that each of us has something of value to offer to the life in our world—something that can make this world a much better place.

At one time or another, most of us wish that we were like someone else. I wish that I could be as good at music as Keith…and Brenda. I wish that I could be as fine an artist as Susan Eddy Ledder. I wish that I could write books the way the Madeleine L’Engle or JRR Tolkien—and dozens of other writers can write. The truth is that I dabble in all of these endeavors; I sing—but don’t spend a lot of time in rehearsal and practice to sing better; I play with paints and pens and paper—but don’t commit to the time it takes to become really good as either an artist or a writer.

But in the midst of making excuses for why I am not as good as I would like to be, God calls me to do the work that is in front of me—being a pastor—and to do it in the way that Jamie would do it best—not doing it the way that Bill…or Judy…or Richard…or Ray…or any of the other pastors that you have had in your midst. God doesn’t want me to be Moses—or any of those other people either. God wants me to be the best Jamie that I can be.

All of us have certain abilities—gifts we have called them in our service today. Some of us are good at running a business, using a computer, baking pies, working with Seniors—or small children; some of us are great at offering hospitality, coaching sports, earning money, resolving conflicts, managing projects, cleaning up after others, and on and on. We need to acknowledge what we do well and invest whatever it is in God’s work of mending our broken world, even when we believe what we have to offer is insignificant. The good news is that God is able to use all of our gifts for the sake of the common good, and when we pool our resources, there will be enough—enough money, enough time, enough talent—and just the talent needed.

I can imagine you sitting there sifting through the things that you might think of as gifts…and I can hear you discarding them in your mind. I invite you to pause for a moment and pin down just two things you are good at. If you have a pen, write them down on your bulletin…pause…these don’t have to be monumental things…just things that you think you do particularly well…pause…and now I invite you to turn to a neighbor and share one of those gifts…pause…

When I have done this exercise with women on retreat, I ask them to tell me 10 things that they do well. I give them a ½ hour to think about it, and when I ask them to share their lists with me at the end of the time, very few can think of 10 things they will claim. Many only list one or two items, and some come back with a blank piece of paper. This happens sometimes with men, too, but men seem far more willing to claim the things that they do well. Still, most people in our society seem to struggle with claiming the things that they can do.

Author Robert Fulghum tells of visiting kids at various stages in their school life. He says that when he visits kindergartners and asks “Who can sing?” and “Who can draw?” every hand in the room shoots up and he sees examples of their excellent work. When he asks the same question of 4^th graders, the numbers of enthusiastic responses drop to about ½ of the class. Seniors in high school, maybe 1 in 10 will admit to either without qualification. When he shows up on a college campus and asks that question, even those who are majoring in art and music qualify their responses about whether they can make music or art.

Who are you? What are your gifts? When you come before God like Rabbi Zusya in our story, will you have been the most completely YOU that you can be?

As I was planning for today’s service, I came across a poem that is particularly pertinent. It doesn’t have a title, but the person writing it was thinking about Moses and wrote it in Moses’ voice. I invite you to listen—and hear your own dilemma:

The Lord said to me—Go

And I said—Who, me?

And God said—Yes, you!

But I answered:

     I feel really inadequate

     I don’t have the gifts

     I don’t know enough

And the Lord said—You’re stalling!

The Lord said—Go

And I answered:

     But what happens if I fail?

     I don’t have what it takes.

     What will others say?

     Send someone else!

And the Lord said—stop wriggling!

The Lord said—Go

And I said:

     But I am on my own

     Who will help me?

     It’s too scary

And the Lord said—Do you think I’ll be far away?

And the Lord said—Go

And I shrugged and said:

     Okay, Lord, have it your way

     Here I am

     Send me.

All of us have particular gifts that can be put to use for the work of God’s kingdom. We often just need the courage to step up and put our gifts to work in our community.

Last week, as we were having our “first cup of tea together,” we talked about a couple of the basics of Christian Community: Love God with all that you are and love others as you love yourself; seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. Today, as we “drink our second cup of tea,” we recognize that God knows us intimately, and that we all have different gifts which God can use in caring for the world. As New Visions Community, it is important for us to name the gifts that we can each bring to strengthen one another. In reality, each one of us is a gift to New Visions!

Just meeting on Sunday morning and worshiping together, it can be difficult to get to know one another’s gifts. This is particularly true if we are reluctant to actually claim the things that we do well. Fortunately, we are blessed with several ways of getting to know one another better, but particularly through our Cell Groups we can begin to help each other listen to how God is working in our lives.

As we go out into the world today, I invite you to think about the gifts you have been given—the ones that you had the courage to write and share today—and the ones you did not name. Let me remind you that God has something beautiful for you to do in this world—something that will take just your special touch—sharing that message, singing that song, and offering that act of love that will bring tremendous fulfillment. It will also enrich the lives of others and be a part of bringing about the kingdom of God in this time and place. I leave you with this question: How would you like to have God use you to make a creative difference in our world? May you be blessed as you live into the answer! Thanks be to God. Amen.

Proclaiming Our Values


Community: Living as Followers of Christ. This is the theme for our worship during the month of July as I begin my journey with the people of New Visions Community UMC. The Blog below is the written version of the first sermon in that series: "Proclaiming our Values."

I don’t know about you, but I find that a good cup of tea or coffee is a great way to begin a conversation between two (or more) people. I find this to be especially true if the conversation is going to be on a challenging topic—or if I don’t know the person particularly well. The cup of tea gives us a bit of comfort and familiarity—a bit like talking about the weather, or beginning a conversation with the phrase: “How about them Huskers?”!

So today we are going to begin with a metaphorical cup of tea as we begin our month-long conversation about what it means to live together in community, both as Christians and as Christians in conversation with people of other faiths. To begin our conversation today, I invite you to listen to a song by Amira Mortenson, "Three Cups of Tea” that can be found on YouTube .


Amira is the daughter of Greg Mortenson, the Founder and Director of the Central Asia Institute. He does humanitarian work in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he builds schools in collaboration with local communities. His short mission statement is “Building peace one school at a time.” Amira has her own work to help out her father; she wrote and sang the song we just heard when she was in the fourth grade, she helped to write and produce a children’s book about her father’s work, and she goes on some of his speaking engagements because she is far more outgoing than her father!

Amira started her work when she was 5 or 6 by opening a lemonade stand and donating the money she earned to an organization called, “Pennies for Peace,” a program started by children in a Wisconsin school where Amira’s grandmother was the principal. 


When the students learned that a penny could buy a pencil in Afghanistan, they thought that raising money one penny at a time would be a good way to help out the peace project of building schools.

Greg Mortensen did not set out to help educate the world. He set out to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. He was doing this in memory of a younger sister who had died. Greg did not succeed in his attempt, and he almost died in the effort. He was found by villagers in Korphe Pakistan, and they took care of him for seven weeks. During his time there, he became fascinated by the children, who a couple of times a week, would meet together outside with a traveling teacher. The children used sticks to write answers to questions in the dirt. When Mortenson asked why there was no school, he was told that the village was too poor. In thanks and appreciation for the care he received, Mortenson vowed to return to Korphe and build a school.



This was not an easy or straight-forward task…and there were errors made along the way. In fact, some of you might be thinking about the trouble Mortenson has been in for not having audited books for his Institute. He would be the first to tell you that he works out of passion, and that he learns by doing; so, like many other entrepreneurs bookkeeping is not his strong suit. Business people are now working with him to sort through the issues raised by those who are concerned about these things, and Mortenson continues to build schools and work with local communities.



One of the first things that Mortenson learned in Pakistan is the phrase that is on the front of today’s bulletin. “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you are an honored guest. The third time you become family.” Mortenson learned that he could get no work done in these countries until he would sit down and take tea with them. And, he made no progress until he learned to listen to the ways in which things were done in each village.



It isn’t just about having a cup of tea. It is not just a formal ritual. The purpose is to listen to what is important, to hear how things happen, to learn the wisdom of each place. That was a huge lesson for Mortenson to learn.

The first cup of tea that we share as strangers can often begin with a lot of assumptions. I know that some of you have heard stories about me—as I have about some of you. If we only listen to that kind of talk, our assumptions can lead us to make mistakes…particularly cultural errors. I will be coming to listen to your stories about who you are and your hopes and dreams for the New Visions Community.



And that is why I chose the three cups of tea image for our July sermon series. I am new here. We don’t know one another. I don’t know what you think is important—nor do you know what values I carry. We are going to take some time over this month to “drink tea” and listen to one another. Today, we share our “First cup of tea” and explore a little about one another.



When Bill asked me to come up with a theme for July worship, I thought about using the lectionary for a while. Most of my preaching life the lectionary has been the basis for my preaching. Using the lectionary often takes me to places I might not go in Scripture on my own; the lectionary keeps our church in conversation with other lectionary churches around the world. But when I thought about doing church differently, I thought that it might be more helpful to explore what I consider to be some of the texts that are the most formative for who I am as a disciple of Christ—what I mean when I tell people that I am a Christian. I hope that part of our conversation over this month will include passages that you find equally formative that I may not have included. To be fair—with only a month, we know that the conversation will just be beginning.



And just in case we think that the Holy Spirit might not have a sense of humor, I wanted to let you know that the Gospel lesson read for today was not the one I intended to have read. In fact, the 13^th chapter of Mark—sometimes called the “Little Apocalypse”—is one of my least favorite portions of Mark’s gospel, yet the text that Don read is the one I sent to Susan, Elizabeth, Brenda, and Bill! I had intended that we move directly to what I consider the heart of Jesus’ teachings in Mark’s gospel—Mark 12:28-31, 34:

“One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, the scribe asked Jesus, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’…When Jesus [heard that the scribe understood him] he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’”

But the Holy Spirit seems to have wanted us to hear that we are to remain vigilant! (or maybe that word was particularly directed at me because my focus has been so much on the move from one home to another that the kingdom of God has been less in focus…hmm?)

Anyway…for me, today’s passages—when I add the 2^nd Gospel lesson about love of God and neighbor!—are the heart of what we are about as disciples of Christ. We sang it this morning as we sang: “For everyone born, a place at the table, for everyone born, clean water and bread, a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing, for everyone born, a star overhead…and God will delight when we are creators of justice and joy, compassion and peace. Yes, God will delight when we are creators of justice, justice and joy.”



Greg Mortenson has lived out this teaching when he saw a need and learned how to respond to it; his daughter has learned how to do the same, bringing her own gifts to the table. While we can choose to support Mortenson’s work in Afghanistan and Pakistan—or not—we are called to do our own work in our various neighborhoods. Our vision statement proclaims that as “individuals and as a Community we focus on the needs of the world.” Because we have been transformed by the love of God in Christ, we believe in changing the world one life at a time. Let us begin by having a cup of tea together!