"The Underbird"

Isaiah 6:1-8

 

      Monday was a day of reflection for me.  It was twenty-nine years ago, June 5,1977, that I was ordained to be a minister.  That was before reunion and I was in a union presbytery so technically I was ordained to be a minister in both the UPCUSA and the PCUS.  A lot has changed in the world and in the church and in my family since that time.  The one thing that we believe has not changed is God. 

 

       Frederick Buechner wrote a sermon titled The Calling of Voices.  There were a couple of lines in it that especially spoke to me.  "When you are young there are so many voices, and they all in their ways sound so promising.  The danger is that you will not listen to the voice that speaks to you through the seagull mounting the gray wind, say, or the vision in the temple, that you do not listen to the voice inside you or to the voice that speaks from outside but specifically to you out of the specific events of your life, but that instead you listen to the great blaring, boring, banal voice of our mass culture."

 

       As we grow older and look back over our lives one of the haunting questions "What voice have we listened to."  As individuals and as a church have we listened to the voice of God or have we been swayed by the culture around us.  As commissioners prepare for the General Assembly meeting that begins on Thursday some would say that it is obvious, we have been swayed by culture.  Others would say no, we are trying to be faithful to what we believe God wants us to do.  Of course what faithfulness means to one person is very different from what faithfulness means to someone else. 

     

       After last Saturday it is obvious that not everyone in Holston Presbytery is of one mind about God's will for the PCUSA.  One of the things that is obvious to me is that George Rolling and Tom Burleson and Myra Shanks are taking seriously their call to serve as our commissioners and youth delegate to GA.  Whatever comes out of the assembly, they will have served faithfully.

 

        As I thought about the anniversary of my ordination, the presbytery meeting last week, the upcoming General Assembly meeting, I began to wonder what it is about the church that gives me hope and what is it about the church that drains the life out of me.

 

        For example, a spirit filled worship service like last Sunday gives me hope.  It drains the life out of me when I hear someone say "if we do that passing of the peace one more time I am not coming back."  An adult or infant baptism gives me hope.  Having someone upset because someone sat in what they believe to be their seat drains the life out of me.  Seeing young people on a mission trip sharing their faith gives me hope.  Seeing individuals at a presbytery meeting saying if the vote doesn't go their way their church is pulling out drains the life out of me.  Hearing about people of the church on different sides of an issue honestly listening to each other gives me hope.    Hearing the way some of my colleagues are treated by elders and members drains the life out of me.  Trying something new in the church gives me hope.  Hearing we have always done it this way drains the life out of me.  Hearing about the prodigal son being welcomed home by his Father gives me hope.  Hearing about the elder brother's lack of enthusiasm for his brother's return drains the life out of me. 

 

      It seems to me that one of the things a church should always offer people is hope.  The last thing a church should be doing is draining the life out of people.  As I look ahead, barring illness, I probably have about ten years of active ministry left.  I am sure that statement is bad news for some and life draining.  But I so hope that those years will be spent giving hope to people.

 

     And I am optimistic.  I am not optimistic because of who I am or because of who you are.  I am optimistic because of who God is.  God saved a sinner like Isaiah.  God sent his son Jesus into the world, not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. 

 

     Like Isaiah we have been called to tell people about this awesome God who will do whatever it takes to save one lost sheep, who will pray for those who put him to death, who embraces the prodigal son and welcomes him home before he ever has a chance to say a word.

 

      Charlie Brown built a birdhouse and he showed it to Lucy.  Charlie Brown proclaimed "This birdhouse is going to be for sparrows only."  To which Lucy responded, 'For SPARROWS?  Nobody builds birdhouses for sparrows, Charlie Brown."  "I do," he responded. "I always stick up for the underbird."

 

      Aren't we all underbirds?  Every one of us is like Isaiah, in need of grace, love and forgiveness.  Jesus came and stuck up for the underbirds and because of that he was hung on a cross.  And there lies our hope.  We don't have do be brought down by our sin, we can be lifted up with Jesus into the kingdom of God. 

 

       If a church does nothing else, it has to offer hope of new life to the underbird.  The church may die doing it but it be better to die with Jesus than to live for nothing.  For it is in dying with Jesus that we receive new life.