Sermon for
May 30, 2004: Pentecost Sunday
Confirmation Sunday
Ascension Sunday Series: The Household of God: Three Keys to a
Healthy Life
3. Third Key to a Healthy Life—Focus on Mission
Acts 2:1-8; 12-21; Romans 8:14-17; John 14:25-27
How many of you have ever sailed?
I was a sailor. I was a sailor for two summers as I interned in
seminary at Camp Don Lee near Arapahoe, North Carolina on the Neuse River.
Camp Don Lee is a sunfish sailing camp. A sunfish is a small
sailboat with a triangular sail. It was then that I learned a very
important sailing lesson—how to get back home. In order to get
back home you have to identify a landmark and sail toward that point.
Sometimes you simply line up the mast and the bow with that landmark and
sail straight there. More often than not, however, you need to keep
that landmark in your sight as you “tack” back and forth depending on
the wind and the current.
If a sailor does not have a clear way
to go the sailboat just meanders here and there or simply stays adrift.
The sailor needs a destination to know how to trim the sails and catch the
wind to get there. What is true for a sailor is also true for you.
You need a mission. Your family needs a mission. Your school
needs a mission. Your workplace needs a mission. Your church
needs a mission. The world needs a mission. You need a mission
just like a sailor needs a destination.
Having been a former campus minister
for a number of years I have known in my ministry many students who just
did not know what they wanted to do with their lives. So many of
them found themselves up to the last minute choosing a course of study in
which to major because they just weren’t sure where they were going yet.
Those with much experience in vocation counseling all suggest the same
thing. You need a mission. Before you can tell whether a
particular field of study or work you need right for you is to know who
you are, what really captures your passion, what is your unique purpose in
life. Once you know that, courses of study and vocational choices
become so much more obvious.
A sense of mission; a unifying
purpose—that is exactly what is lacking today in our lives, our homes,
our schools, our church, and our world. When you don’t have a
mission; when you don’t have a common, unifying purpose or goal toward
which you are striving, you just meander around in life. With no
common vision that leads you into the future with intentional purpose
you’re left with just trying to get along with one another. When
you don’t focus on mission
you live in the
past
or your purpose in
life becomes simple survival
or a group or
organization focuses on one leader
or you focus on an
issue of the moment that stirs your passions and,
more often than not, increases your divisions.
Without a mission to focus the life of a home, a school, a workplace, a
congregation, or a world, sometimes all we are left with are our
differences and divisions that separate us and leave us in constant
conflict.
What is life like at your house?
Yogi Berra probably said it best:
You’ve got to
be very careful if you don’t know where you are going,
because you might
not get there.
From Healthy Congregations by Peter Steinke
Lutheran Brotherood 1999, Workshop 1, Session 5, p. 37
When you have a mission, when you focus on a mission and a vision that can
carry us into the future, that’s the third key to a healthy life.
We conclude today a series of sermons on The Household of God:
Three Keys to a Healthy Life. The first key is accept
differences; the second key is focus on strength; the third key
is focus on mission. Every person, every home, every school,
every workplace, every congregation needs a mission.
Perhaps there is no better recent
example of the unifying force of a focus on a common mission than what
happened spontaneously in New York City on September 11, 2001. In
one tragic moment the metropolis known for its utter lack of care for one
another instantly became a community of caring helpfulness right on its
streets and sidewalks. Selfish concern for one’s own space and how
quickly you had to get from one place to another was transformed in by
that one event into genuine humanitarian concern for the care of perfect
strangers all caught up in a common tragedy. Disasters and the
experience of loss tend to bring us all back to our best selves, our
truest natures, our most fulfilling identities. The real tragedy is
that it usually does not take long for us to lose ourselves again in the
rush and distractions of daily life until we utterly lose our bearings and
go right on our meandering way.
When these 14 young people come before
the church for Confirmation they are doing more than simply going through
the motions to become full members of the church. Through these 13
weeks or so I trust we have discovered together just how much God loves
each and every one of them. I also trust that they have found in
God’s love that one focus for their lives that will carry them through
no matter what. As they begin to develop their own vocational
interests I know you pray with me that they will find themselves fulfilled
in life because they identified their personal passion early and choose to
focus on that mission that will bring real meaning, purpose, and value to
their lives.
That is also my prayer for our homes,
our schools, our workplaces, and our congregation. Our church is
fortunate. We have already identified and committed to a statement
of our mission as a congregation. This expression our deepest and
abiding beliefs can be a unifying statement of purpose and vitality that
can carry us into the future. Our mission upon which we focus is:
As Christ Cares, We Care.
As a congregation we need to focus on
this mission. Whatever we do, whatever we decide, wherever we go in
the name of Jesus our every effort, our every ministry, our every program,
our every group, our every goal is an expression of this mission upon
which we focus. Furthermore, if there is ever anything we think we
want to do that does not reflect this focus we need to lay it aside.
I shared with our leaders at our
Administrative Board meeting recently I believe our congregation needs one
thing for us all to strive toward together as one people of God. We
need to identify our unique vision for ministry which grows out of this
very good statement of our mission. What does it mean for South
Roanoke Church to care as Christ cares? How are we uniquely
positioned more than any other congregation with our talents and our
creativity and our resources to live out this mission. How are we
known in this community? When somebody mentions South Roanoke Church
on the community grapevine, what is said the most about us? That’s
what we need right now. A focus on mission. That is the
purpose of our “Creating Healthy Congregations” Workshop a number of
our leaders and members will share next Sunday. This program, upon
which this series of sermons was based, is designed to help us identify
that unique vision to which our mission calls us.
A focus on mission. That’s
what any home, any school, any workplace, any church needs. That’s
exactly what our world is desperate for today.
Jesus gave a promise. He said,
…the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I
leave with you; my
peace I give to you.
John 26-27b.
Today we celebrate the day Jesus fulfilled that promise for his
disciples and for us. When the Spirit of God came down upon the
friends of Jesus that day and they were able to tell everyone of every
language about his love the church was born. Their mission we carry
on today. These confirmands take up that mission today to which we
are all called. If we focus on mission, that’s where a
congregation finds and maintains health. To the extent that the
people of God find a way to be healthy with one another there is indeed
hope for our workplaces, our schools, and home, even our world.
Health is a gift. Health is a gift granted by a gracious God to
those who accept differences; who focus on strength; and who focus on
mission. We were created to be healthy. That health was
planted in us in the very beginning by the image of God at the very center
of our lives. God restores health to us as we give ourselves to God
through Jesus Christ.
It is no coincidence, I believe,
that a symbol for the Holy Spirit is the dove. The dove, you see,
can be released anywhere in the world and it can always find its way home.
That’s a focus on mission! By the grace of God, if we simply let
God let us grow as we are intended we can find our way home.
As we lay the hands of Confirmation
upon these young people today, join with me in conferring the blessing of
God that the Spirit may so flow through them that no matter where they may
go or what they may do they can always find their way back home.
based upon Healthy Congregations by Peter L. Steinke,
Lutheran Brotherhood 1999, Workshop 1, Session 5, pp. 35-38
