Have you not heard?  Nobody knows what to do.  The budget is in trouble from the kitchen table to city hall to the statehouse to the White House.  And it is apparent that nobody really knows what to do about it all.  It is a terrible time to be leading a city, a state, an organization, a family, a nation.  Leaders are supposed to provide answers and solutions.  Have you heard what they’re saying on the television and the radio?  Nobody knows what to do.

Our anxiety threatens to paralyze us.  If you’ve been watching Congress this week, you’ve seen how people who are too afraid of doing the wrong thing can find themselves doing nothing at all, when clearly, something needs to be done.

But the church knows what to do.  Oh, I’m not suggesting that we can fix the economy, guide the nation, achieve world peace… but there is a role for us as a community called church.  Our role is laid out for us today by the words of the poet/prophet Isaiah, and by the story of Jesus and Peter as they walk along the seashore.

First, we need to orient ourselves to the bigger picture.  Second, we need to take care of the tasks that are immediately before us.

Here’s how Isaiah paints that bigger picture:  There is one who sits far above the circle of the earth, who exists though time and history wither away and pass; and who nevertheless regards each person as significant, who created and calls by name, and promises to lose not one.  Lift up your eyes to that one.  Isaiah suggests that we, who might at first be like grasshoppers, with a ground level view and the capacity to hop 20 feet or so might, by lifting up our eyes to the God who created us, find ourselves instead soaring with the capacity of the eagle.  We may therefore be strengthened for such a time as this, and be made to walk and not grow weary even through difficult times.  The one who, in Isaiah’s creation myth, set the sun and stars in the sky and watches from above is also the good shepherd.  Isaiah helps orient us to the big picture.  Stay in touch with both the transcendence and the imminence of God.

We need to come to know the mystery that God is both unsearchable and yet our shepherd.  One write has suggested that there is a way into this knowing:

“We come to know how God works in the world through years of living with God and God’s people.  Years of exploring, seeking, reflecting, and acting with God.  Over time, through Bible study, worship, practices of faith like hospitality and forgiveness, stewardship and service, we come to a place of knowing God’s ways, even if we cannot sufficiently put words to it.”  (Verity A. Jones in Feasting on the Word)

Which brings us to the tasks that are immediately before us.  When John the Gospel writer told the story of Jesus walking along the water with Peter, he was creating a path for discipleship.  You will recall the earlier story of Peter’s three fold denial of Jesus.  Now comes a story of restoration.  Peter is challenged by Jesus, “do you love me?”  Three times he answers, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”  And three times Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”

Words are not enough.  Feeding of sheep is work.  Sheep like to eat every day.  Of course, we know who the sheep are to whom Jesus refers, do we not?  There are two kinds of sheep in John’s gospel.  In an earlier story, Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, and then he points out that there are those already in the sheep fold and those who are outside, and who will be brought in.

I don’t know how we will find our way from the church we used to be to the church we are meant to be today and tomorrow and next year.  But I know this, because, to put it a little too simply, perhaps, the Bible tells me so.  We have to lift up our eyes, and we have to feed the sheep.

This is a shared responsibility.  Every one of us who desires the power and presence and comfort and sustaining love of the Good Shepherd in our times of need is also called to be a shepherd to others, within and beyond the doors of our sheep fold.  Some of us are resistant to that.  We feel that we have done enough; that no more should be expected of us.  We tend to get a little angry whenever the church asks something of us.  We forget that the church is the Body of Christ, and that it is the role of the church to articulate a call to discipleship.

Others of us are distressed that we cannot do more – that our physical infirmities or our advancing age are preventing us from doing what we want to do, and wish we could do.  We get depressed and fearful when we find that we cannot do what we feel we should and must do; we begin to fear that we are useless and this is distressing to us.  We forget that the church is the Body of Christ, and sometimes, we just need to be sheep, and let the good shepherd care for us.

The truth is, there are cycles and seasons.  Sometimes, and I think more of the time than not, we are blessed when we are a blessing.  That is, we are called to do the work of shepherding.  But there are seasons of our lives when we need to be cared for.  We need to be not the care givers, but the object of care.

Sorting that out is a task for prayer, and discernment and perhaps pastoral conversation.

Last week, we provided some guidance regarding spiritual gifts.  This week we are offering an opportunity for the exercise of those gifts through the ministries of the church.

The spiritual gifts discovery and the ministry fair are for building up the Body of Christ and strengthening the members of it.  The gifts God gives to the Body are just that:  gifts.  The ministries of the church are the gifts the Body gives for mutual strengthening and sustenance both of the body itself.  Also, then, these ministries are the means by which we, the church, reach beyond our doors, and move into the community where the other sheep are, and care for them.

The ministries of the church often look like they are mundane tasks, exercised at the level of the grasshopper contemplating a blade of grass… they often look like stuffing envelopes, and answering phones, and mowing the grass, and cutting up carrots – but always in an effort to support people, to give us all the capacity to be strengthened and blessed.  Sometimes the ministries of the church are deeply time consuming – giving hours and hours to preparing and exercising leadership in youth ministry, or leading a class, or planning an event, or organizing and equipping others to do the work of ministry.

At the ministry fair set up in the gathering area, you will find six displays.  There are five ministry categories:  Worship and Spiritual Life; Faith Formation; Mission and Justice; Hospitality and Evangelism; and Congregational Care.  Each of those areas are summarized in the booklet you received as you entered worship.  At each display, there are lists of ministries in that area.  And on each list you will find opportunities to participate, serve and lead.

A sixth table is identified as “How Can We Help You?”  For those who don’t feel ready to commit to service or leadership, there is a brief questionnaire, and there will be opportunities for following up.  Or, you can stop there today, and one of the pastors will help you match gifts with ministries.

Today, you are invited, after worship, to spend some time looking at the six different lists of ministries, and identifying where you will exercise your gifts for ministry.

Now, what should you do about the work you are already doing in the church?  If you are already on the list as a liturgist, or a desk worker, or a kitchen helper – should you sign up today?  Yes!!  We are creating new information databases and need your sign up information today to help us do that.

Lists…
Pencils…

Boxes for handing in your ministry commitments…

An opportunity to grow in faith…

Matching gifts with ministries…

The membership vows we each took when we joined the church lay out the basic expectation of participation and service.  Participation can be simply a commitment to be faithful in worship attendance.  Opportunities for service abound.  Some are called to lead.  All are called to participation and service.

We know what to do.  Over time, through Bible study, worship, practices of faith like hospitality and forgiveness, stewardship and service, we come to a place of knowing God’s ways.  We know that we need to get to know the immanence and transcendence of God, and that on those tables out there are the means to that knowledge.

Performing the tasks immediately at hand is exactly what orients to the big picture.

It will not be said of us that we did not know what to do.  It will be said of us that we were strengthened… that when the times were difficult and everyone was anxious, we did not grow weary.  It will be said of us that our strength was renewed.  It will be said of us that the sheep did not go hungry… It will be said of us, “look how they care for one another.”

We can depend on the God who sits above the circle of the earth … and let it be said of us that when Jesus depended on us to feed his sheep, we knew what to do.

Amen.