Sermon: October 21, 2012

 “Finishing What We Have Begun”

Scripture: Psalm 40 read responsively and II Corinthians 8: 9 – 15

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ October 21, 2012

Mission of Unity Fair and Special Fellowship

Unity Presbyterian Church ~ Terre Haute, Indiana

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

Psalm 40 read responsively

Waiting for God to act in our lives can be stressful.  We rely on God’s previous actions to inform our waiting but anxiety can overcome our patience and reliance on God.  In this song of faithful waiting, listen for the times of remembrance that give comfort and the times of expectation that challenge our trust.  Through it all we know God is our refuge. 

¹I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

²He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

³He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

⁴Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.

⁵You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.

⁶Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

⁷Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

⁸I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

⁹I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

¹⁰I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

¹¹Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.

¹²For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.

¹³Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me.

¹⁴Let all those be put to shame and confusion who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt.

¹⁵Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

¹⁶But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

¹⁷As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.

II Corinthians 8: 9 – 15

Paul has taken on a huge undertaking to raise funds for the poor of Jerusalem from the Gentile Churches he has nurtured.  This offering shows the believers' indebtedness to one another and to God who is working among them.  Caring for one another, even those far off who we do not know, binds the whole church together in trust and love that builds a community that values equity for all.

⁹For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something—¹¹now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between¹⁴your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.¹⁵As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”

SERMON

I like this picture of an unfinished bridge, because it reminds me that while we are working hard on our side of a project, others we may not even know are working on their side and in completion we will celebrate everyone’s efforts.  God is guiding us with partners here in town, all over the country and around the world to bring completion to mission efforts.  Today we have a wonderful Mission Fair to get a glimpse of how Unity serves with many others to complete the bridges God is building.

I was reading site about surviving natural disasters.  Being without power for two hours is frustrating.  Try two weeks and desperation sets in.  Even people, who are prepared for a natural disaster where it takes a gallon of water per person each day, still have storage challenges to face.  Sitting in the dark… (Stewardship Interruption)

Let there be light and there was light and God saw that the light was good.  

People all over the world need our help.  Yes, the help of one little congregation made a difference to a small community in Africa.  Every year we provide the funding for a shallow well that will sustain the drinking water for approximately 125 people.  But just like Paul raising money to help the poor in Jerusalem, it takes risk, and like the bridge and power supply these wells take money, know-how and effort from both sides. 

The 2011 Marion Medical Mission Team installed 2662 shallow wells. The wells included over 500 in Tanzania and 400 in Zambia with the rest in Malawi.  

One of the first questions Stewardship team asked you is, “Do you give?”  That is right now in your life are you giving?  You may think, “I can’t give right now, I have too many financial challenges.”  I understand because I have lived from paycheck to paycheck.  Just in the last few years, I took a $10,000 cut in compensation to assist the church in trying to meet its budget.  I knew better, I knew it was the wrong choice, but like you I want Unity to be successful.  It wasn’t a wrong choice for me, because I have learned over and over that God will take care of me.  But it was the wrong choice for the church.  We need to be risk takers, extravagant givers.  If that $10,000 had been given to United Campus Ministry to help provided for a fulltime campus minister or the roof for a home in Henryville or built 25 wells in Africa, then we would have been completing the work God has called us to do.  We would have been risk takers. 

Yesterday, a small group of committed members culminated their risk in trying something new in ministry.  They could of given up when the task turn out to be dirty, difficult and frustrating.  The Grant committee of the Mission Committee has been working with Popoff’s cleaners to see if Unity could create an alternate site of ministry.  Running a laundromat is extravagant, it is risky but we follow a risk taking Lord.  At a well in Samaria Jesus risked telling the good news to an exiled woman.  The reward was an amazingly successful evangelist that brought the whole town out to meet him. 

I do not want to tell you what percentage of your income, time and talent you should give to the church.  Instead I want you to learn to put God first in your life.  And I promise you that in spite of mistakes, failures and even losses you will build bridges to completion in your life and with the church.  When we are extravagant, when we are risk takers, we finish what we have begun.

Amen.