To live for God's glory (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Today’s New Testament reading is one long sentence. The English translations tend to render these verses into more chewable sentences. In the Greek manuscripts, verses 3 through 14 go for miles until you finally get to that period, which finally caps things off. For those of you familiar with the Pauline epistles, this may not come as a shock. Paul’s Epistles are often a hard slog to read, with his thoughts framed in the midst of sentences you would have been terrified to diagram in middle school.

So, why does Paul use all these words with such an allergy to basic punctuation? In this passage, Paul cannot help but contain himself. He is writing in praise of God and what God has done for the world in the form of Christ Jesus. It is an unending word of praise drawing together rich imagery of Christ at the center of all Creation. In most of his letters, Paul will offer words of greeting and then a few words of thanksgiving. For the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul shares this lengthy word of thanksgiving as a word of great thanksgiving meant to inspire and enliven the life of the believers receiving his letter. Despite the world we know it, in its frantic, uncertain, broken down way, Paul claims there is another story at work, a way of looking at the world that inspires and encourages us to live in the midst of the chaos and ambiguity where our faith shall lead us with confidence and grace     

As you might have recalled from the church newsletter or announcements from the pulpit, I was accepted into a program for clergy serving smaller congregations. The good folks at Virginia Theological Seminary envisioned the program, known as the Summer Collegium, as a way to support congregations just like yours. Indeed, the diversity of congregations represented at this year’s event was wonderful. In this year’s class, a diverse group of mainline Protestant clergy attended a gathering of ministers who have spent much of their career in service to congregations of one hundred or less. Some clergy are part-time. Some clergy serve more than one congregation. Some clergy are in rural areas and small towns while others serve congregations in urban and metropolitan areas.

At Coffee Hour, I invite you to look at the booklet featuring an introduction to each of the program participants. Each entry features a brief narrative of the clergy person and their spouse, telling their story of ministry. I find the other half of the entry even more exciting. Each minister’s congregation appears in a wonderful collage of photographs, giving you a glimpse of congregational life in churches across parts of North America.

In our sessions, we talked about the difficulties facing smaller congregations. The current economic downturn affects many congregations nationwide. These churches reflect the ongoing challenges of being numerically smaller than they were decades ago. As clergy shared our challenges and our fears, a lot of joy about the people we serve tended wonderfully to eclipse the worries. Look at the pictures in this booklet, and you will see the beauty and wonder of “being small”. The stories I heard of congregations certainly included ones of challenge, but I was also privileged and indeed blessed to hear of what little congregations are doing to keep the faith. We are not the only congregation out there that is smaller than some of us remember. We are not alone.

Indeed, as I listened to others and shared the story of First Baptist to my colleagues, I found myself smiling and feeling quite joyful. We are doing good work, and I am blessed to hear of what other congregations are doing. Indeed, it felt like one long season of thanksgiving. We know there are challenges. We know it is challenging to be smaller. We have to remind ourselves, however, there are great things happening in small places. Listen to the sounds around the building this morning as the great joy of Vacation Bible School is underway, for its fourth year! Celebrate the opportunities for missional service as we expect a $1500 check from National Ministries as “seed money” to start a cooking program envisioned by congregants earlier this year. Take note of the new tenant, the Vermont Center for Independent Living (VCIL), as their Bennington office has relocated here as of July 1^s. VCIL helps persons with disabilities find avenues of assistance and advocacy. Know even in tough, economic times, we are helping offset the considerable costs of building operations while attracting a non-profit that adds to the types of services the community is learning to find at First Baptist. Yet again, “601 Main Street” becomes known as a place the community can find “healing, community involvement, and spiritual grounding”. Can I hear an Amen?

Each year’s program focuses on an issue for small church clergy. This year the program offered ways for small church pastors to improve their self-care and wellbeing in ministry work. When I asked the Pastoral Relations Committee if I could apply, they were quite supportive, as were the members of the church cabinet. Why? If there has been anything that I have not done well in my ministry, it has been taking care of myself.

In this line of work, you deal with long hours and often-unpredictable schedules. A few years back, a pastoral mentor told me, “Most hands-on ministry work happens in the unexpected parts of your day.” Dealing with a variety of tasks and more importantly, a variety of people on a day-to-day basis is understandable. Nonetheless, I have tended toward skipping days off and vacation, working on projects and keeping up things to the point that I found myself wore out more than refreshed at the start of a day.

As I attended workshops and talked shop with other clergy at the Summer Collegium, I felt some of the frazzled, wore out feelings drain away for the first time in awhile. I slept well, I ate properly, I walked quite a bit, and I bought a good size stack of books. (Everybody has his or her version of retail therapy.) I even found time to play around with my camera. I took the picture of a park bench on the Virginia Theological Seminary campus. Surrounded by a beautiful mini-garden, the bench reminds me that I need to take a moment and be still. I will keep the picture around as a reminder to myself, and I share it with you so that you can likewise claim the good promise of this image.

The past two weeks helped me identify new skills for self-care. I learned that little things count: leaving some things undone at the end of the day, taking time to get up and walk away from a long stretch at the desk. I learned things that we might not think much about: how to make sure I leave a gap in the day to catch my breath, how to ensure I eat properly and well, how to laugh more and let things go.

For example, this Thursday will be my day off for this week. I will tell myself Wednesday evening when I go to sleep to go to sleep, not check email all day Thursday, and avoid getting involved with day-to-day parish matters (even trying to sneak time writing on the sermon). What will require my full attention on Thursday is housework, time with my spouse, a long walk with my dog, reading a book, or since it is summer, enjoying a home cooked meal with a couple of ears of Moses’ corn (just now available this weekend).

As I integrate the learning experiences from the Summer Collegium, I ask your help. Keep asking me “how are you doing?” and “are you taking care of yourself?” And hold me accountable when I need it. This is part of an ongoing learning experience for me, learning to be a good minister while staying in touch with the reality that I cannot do everything.

When I went to the lectionary, I found Paul’s words to the Ephesians rather appropriate in light of my recent learning experiences. While wordy, Paul’s long thanksgiving is a glimpse of life in Christ, letting God be at the center of all things. If there is any measure of “success” for a Christian, I would suggest that it is how well we live our lives with this sort of thanksgiving shaping who we are.

For myself, it is discovering always anew the joy of being called to ministry and the wonders of serving a congregation. For First Baptist, I suggest we let ourselves listen deeply to the call of God for each of us, all members of a particular congregation living together along the journey. And as I learn the habits of taking care of myself, I hope in turn, I can help the congregation learn and grow in our own self-care. We live with some challenging issues and in challenging times. If Paul were to wander in to the congregation, I imagine he’d just tell us to take a moment to breathe, to grow quiet, and listen to his words of thanksgiving again, letting his words help us find our own capacity to “live for the praise of [God’s] glory”. AMEN.