Claim God’s gifts and share them
The Rev. Margaret Gunselman
Friday, July 6, 2007
By the Rev. Margaret Gunselman
Lebo-Olivet United Methodist Church
I recently had a brake job done on my car. This is a pretty routine thing. If one owns a car for any length of time, that’s a job that needs to be done.
The problem was that I had been having the mechanics check my brakes for a very long time. It seemed to me that I had driven far too many years and miles not to have had the brakes worked on. It was suggested to me that I must not use my brakes very much for them to last so long.
That seems indicative of the manner in which we live our lives. Living next to the interstate, I am always on the way somewhere. In my life as in my driving, I spend much more time going than I do stopping.
In this Fourth of July season, amid all of the fireworks, and activities and parades, we also seek to remember and celebrate our freedom. That is an important thing, I think. And, as people of faith, we are asked to remember that freedom is always relational. It involves our relationship with God and with one another. As such, freedom carries with it responsibility.
We are not truly free, if our freedom rests upon the oppression of others. And, we are not truly free, if we ourselves do not have time to rest and to trust in God’s provision.
Our faith affirms that God is our creator, and that God provides all that we have and are. In light of that, we are called to trust in God’s care and to celebrate Sabbath. Celebrating Sabbath is more than just attending church, although that is an important part of it. To celebrate Sabbath is to allow ourselves to rest in God’s care, to remember God’s goodness, and to give thanks for God’s presence and provision.
It is a joy-filled duty and a loving obligation. And it is something that a 24/7 world insists cannot be done. Our worship and our rest in God are an act of radical resistance in a world that insists that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done.
Our faith also affirms that God’s very nature is just; that God cares for the poor, the outcast, and the stranger in our midst; as well as the sick, the grieving, and those imprisoned. Indeed, Jesus reminded us that we cannot truly love God whom we cannot see, if we cannot see, love, and have compassion upon the person in need that is among us.
Theologically, we celebrate our freedom, because we remember when our ancestors were not free. Thus, we give thanks to God for our deliverance by recognizing that freedom must be shared in order to be retained. The Fourth of July is now just a memory. The day off is used up and we are back to work again. But, as people of faith, we are called to ponder what it means to be truly free. We are called to repent of our desire to go back to what we imagine we once had, and we pray that God will grant us the courage to forge ahead into an unknown future.
For we affirm that God is indeed in our midst, and that God provides us with hope in the midst of the world’s problems and despair. That hope is grounded in God’s own presence, and grace and offer of reconciliation, peace and love. These are the gifts we are asked to claim so that by our living, they may be shared with a world that has such need for them.
F “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. Margaret Gunselman, pastor of Lebo-Olivet United Methodist Church.