A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie

Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40:1-10
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John1:29-41

If you have Real Audio, click HERE to hear "Hands" by Jewel, which is a "reading" for this sermon.

My hands ARE small. Compared to most hands they look weak and powerless. In the Bible hands are signs of power. The hand of God protects and delivers us. Moses stretches out his hand and miracles happen. Jesus' hands heal; and the disciples' hands heal also. Peter and Andrew and James and John had strong fishermen's hands to use in Jesus' service. My hands are small, I know. They don't do all that powerful stuff. And they're all I've got to follow Jesus with. I can never be like those first disciples. I can't do what disciples do -- leave everything and follow Jesus.

We talk about "Total Ministry" here in Central Minnesota, about the ministry of all the baptized, about the gifts that each of us has for ministry, and about what the church needs to do the work of the church. Maybe we wonder what our own ministry might be and it seems overwhelming. I look at my hands, at what I feel able to do, and I think "My hands can't do this. I'm not qualified to be the facilitator, mentor, and pastor of all this. My hands are too small, too weak to hold it all." You may look at your hands, at what you are able to do, and think much the same about Total Ministry: "I can't do this. I'm not qualified. I am just not able to be the kind of minister that the church needs. My hands are too small, too weak, to follow Jesus in this call, especially this Total Ministry business."

It's one thing for Peter and Andrew and James and John to jump up and follow Jesus. They were great saints and Jesus knew it, didn't he? . . . I found this old letter -- it seems to fit today's readings about the call of the first disciples:

Well, maybe the disciples weren't as well qualified as we'd like to think. If those were the people Jesus called to minister with him, maybe we're qualified to be ministers too. If that questionable crowd of followers could do it, maybe we can too.

When Jesus calls the fishermen, our gospel says that they follow "immediately." We often think that they left everything behind. Which of us is willing to give up everything -- family, job, friends -- and take off to follow Jesus today? Not me. Probably very few. And I don't think that's what Jesus asks of his followers now or then. The fishermen followed Jesus immediately, but there are lots of indications in the gospels that they continued to work as fishermen at the same time. What Jesus did for them is show them a new way to use skills they already had.

He took ordinary, everyday abilities to use for God's glory. He took people who were in darkness and led them into the light. Maybe it doesn't happen overnight, that people find what their ministry is. The disciples followed immediately, but it was only later that Jesus sent them out to "fish" for people."

Even Jesus took time to prepare for his ministry. Remember how today's gospel started? John was in prison, no longer able to preach God's word. And in response Jesus withdrew -- went away by himself. The great prophet John's powerful voice had been silenced. Who would follow?

Perhaps for Jesus, as truly human, John's work, John's "hands" and abilities as prophet seemed huge. It would take a great man to continue the prophet's work. Maybe Jesus too wondered if his hands were too small for the task at hand. So he withdrew before beginning his public ministry, when he followed John in his own way. Jesus is always a good model for us to follow. As we prepare for ministry, we also will take time to reflect on the work to be done and on whose hands are a good fit for each piece of the ministry.

When Jesus called the fishermen to ministry, he used their individual skills: Fisherman are good at catching; now they will catch people for God. Peter was, our management consultant tells us, emotionally unstable; but God used that passion and stubbornness as the rock on which to build God's church. Thomas's morale-damaging questioning became an assurance of faith and blessing for those of us with questions or who were not there to "see and believe."

In the same way, Jesus asks Christians today to follow and to use our individual abilities in a new way. Total Ministry asks EVERYONE to be a minister serving God, to use the skills we already have to serve God's people.

Total Ministry doesn't expect perfection any more than Jesus expected it from the fishermen. Our hands are small and perhaps weak but they are our very own and don't need to be like someone else's. My hands cannot do what yours can. My hands will never be able to play the piano or organ like Debbie's can. My hands aren't asked to do the fine needlework that Luci's hands do so well. But what my hands can do, however small, God can use. And whatever YOUR hands can do, however small, God and the church can use in ministry. Jewel's song reminds us that WE are God's hands. That's not a new thought for Christians. In the fourteenth century, St. Teresa of Avila (who it seems is a fellow spirit of Jewel's) said much the same thing:

"God has no hands but our hands to do his work today;
God has no feet but our feet to lead others in his way;
God has no voice but our voice to tell others how he died;
and, God has no help but our help to lead them to his side."

Once, Jesus called a bunch of unqualified fishermen to change the world. Today, Jesus is calling each one of US to follow, to be disciples and ministers in today's world, to use our hands, our abilities, in God's service.

We are God's hands. Our hands are small, we know. And they are not yours, they are our own. Together our hands become God's hands And we will never be broken.

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