Second Sunday After Epiphany

Ordinary Time 2, Year A January 16, 2005

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Isaiah 49:1-7

You're not wasting your time

Sometimes, we just need a little encouragement. For any task or project or sermon, sustaining the effort gets a little bit easier with some encouragement. When fleshing out a sermon (or flushing out), I often feel as if I'm hitting my head against a blank wall where I think ideas should be posted. They simply aren't there. It takes effort to discern and craft a good word when putting a sermon together; and the energy that fuels the journey comes from a well filled when you have those rare moments of realizing you've made a difference.
I don't so much think about the inevitable and routine comments that come in the narthex after worship is over. These are a study unto themselves, are they not? Most often, the "Nice sermon"-type comments lie somewhere between a common courtesy and a genuine, but rather beside the point, affirmation that actually communicates something closer to "I like you". Most amusing is the all-too-common experience of receiving a comment that makes you almost certain the parishioner was listening to an entirely different sermon. "Pastor, nice message today. Good job of saying precisely what I was determined to hear."
But, there is the rare moment, in the narthex on Sunday, on the phone on Monday, or in some lunch or meeting or visit or email in the days or weeks to come that wow's me. When it happens, I just want to wrap it up tight and stick it in my pocket so I might cherish it for as long as I can, use it as my strength to go on with the task before me. That's what I mean by encouragement.
That's what Isaiah delivers in the text--a narrative of empowerment for those who accept the call to serve God, in the pulpit and on the outreach team or the visitation ministry. What we do is important, and which is more, we become important because of what we do. ...so important that God name me when still in the womb. ...so important that he equipped me, protected me, encouraged me.
Are you like me? Do you get discouraged? Do you find youself with no bundles of inspiration in your pocket? Has it been too long since your last tangible evidence that your ministry is making a difference?

"I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity."

Isaiah has a word for you. It is no small, insignificant thing you do. I know that the "in" thing these days is to emphasize the futility of Christian activity.

• "We live in the world but not of the world."
• "We are called to insignificance." "Worship is a Royal Waste of Time."
• We believe our stuff, and say our stuff and worship and pray and fellowship not because it's of practical value but because it's a sign of our faithfulness.

All true. But it's not the complete truth. The complete truth is that when we answer the call to do God's work, the impact is nothing short of stunning.
 Joe Weaks, Saturday, January 15, 2005, 4:37 PM