Valois United Church

January 20, 2008

Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40
1 Corinthians 1:1-9

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I’d like us to hear the words of Isaiah, applying not to a long-ago prophet, but to ourselves:

Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord has called each one of you before you were born, when you were in the womb God called you.

He has given you abilities, and he has given you work to do.

And God has said to you: You are my servant, in your land, and in you people will even see my glory.

And God has said to you that you have work to do, perhaps in your community, perhaps in the world, that God’s light might be shown to all, that God’s good news might be shared in word and in action.

Even if people look down on you, the Lord says, you are chosen. You have abilities, you have a job to do.

You are called, you are not lacking.....

So, there it is....

Isaiah was clear on what he was to do:
what the abilities were that God had given him;
what he was to do with them.

What about you?

First of all, what are your abilities?

I’m probably going to ask that question again sometime, but now is a good time to start working on it.

What are your abilities??

I’d love to go around and ask you.
I’m guessing that most of you would look down, a little sideways, and mumble something.

Hang on a minute, though.

If I give one of my kids something, and you come in the house the next day, you’re going to hear from the child what they got. Not bragging. Just celebrating.

So, I ask you again to think about the answer to the question, but I re-phrase it: God has given you the gift of abilities. You might not be a prophet. BUT you have abilities that God has given you. What are the abilities that you have because God has given them to you?

Now, when I give a child a gift, I’m happy for the child to celebrate the news.
When God gives us a gift, and people ask us what our abilities are, we clam up.

Now, lets be clear that I don’t want you to be full of pride. But lets be realistic about what God has given us. Including our abilities.

So, again, What are the abilities that you have because God has given them to you?
....
Isaiah knew the answer to the question.
We need to know the answer too.
Because when we know the answer, when we admit the answer, then we’ll have an idea of what we should be doing.

We’re not called, probably, to go prophesying.
But we are called to do something.
And because God has given us abilities, we can do SOMETHING.

But we’re not the best.....

Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

Henry Van Dyke, Bits & Pieces, March 31, 1994, p. 16.

Now, we often are aware of our limitations - the things that we are not able to do - we think of our physical limitations, we think of our intellectual limitations, we think of our time limitations, we think of all our other limitations..... but we forget to think about what we can do.

It is almost as presumptuous to think you can do nothing as to think you can do everything.
Phillips Brooks.

Each and every person here can do something.

Sometime ago, in my e-mail inbox, I received a message about two men in the hospital. I don’t remember many of the thousands of e-mails I receive, but I remember this one.

The two men, the story went, were both in hospital, and neither was able to get up out of bed, but the one closer to the window could sit up enough to see out the window. The other, farther from the window, was not able to even sit up. The two became close in conversation, and the one unable to look out the window would ask the other what could be seen. Each day, a part of the day was spent with the one close to the window describing the things that could be seen - the pretty park, the children playing, the ducks in the pond, a parade going boy, and a pick-up baseball game. The time went buy, but each day would bring another detailed description of what was outside the window.

But finally, with his ill health, the man near the window died. The other, now just able to sit up, asked to be moved beside the window. The first day, he struggled to sit up to see out the window. Looking down, all he could see was the roof and wall of the next wing of the hospital, just one floor lower than his own room. That was all. A cement wall and a black tar roof.

Frustrated, he called the nurse. “What was going on that each day my neighbour described all these scenes - I looked forward to that - but now all I see is a wall?”

The nurse answered him: “Well, your friend was blind. He never saw any of it. But he did know he was lifting your spirits. And now you are able to sit - which is far more than you could do a few weeks ago.”

....

Well, we can all do something.
We may not be able to paint the ceiling of the church.
But we can pray.
We may not be able to sing in the choir.
But we can say a kind word.
We may not be able to run down the street.
But we can share courage with the person next to us.

Know your abilities. Know what you are able to do. Admit your abilities to yourself - rather than focussing on the “I can’ts”.

Now, when we move from the individual, to the church, than it is a case of “even more so”. You put us together, and you hear Paul’s voice, as he talks to the Church in Corinth:

I give thanks to my God always for you because.... you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.

We get so caught up as congregations thinking about the stuff we can’t do, the things we might have been able to do once-upon-a-time, that we forget that there are still a whole pack of abilities in the congregation. And that Paul reminds us that we’ve got what it takes.
Does not mean we’ll do the same stuff as 20 years ago, in exactly the same way.
But it means we can do good stuff, we can do important stuff, we can be the community of faith that God wants us to be in 2008.

But one of the concepts that rings loud is “Stewardship of Assets” That is assets, as in stuff you have.

As individuals, we need to recognize our gifts or assets.
And then we need to pile them all up and recognize the gifts or assets that we have as a congregation.
Sure, we don’t have every asset. We don’t have a million dollars, and we don’t necessarily have every ability either.
But we have assets, we have stuff, we have abilities.
Some we may have had 20 or 30 years ago, we don’t have now.
And some others we did not have a few years ago are new strengths.

And we are able to use them together.

For we are called.
And we are able.