Isaiah 45:1-7
Psalm 96
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
Sisters and brothers, beloved of God, I know that God has chosen you. I know it because the Holy Spirit is alive within you. I can see it: in your work of faith, in your labor of love and in your steadfastness of hope. Some 2000 years ago Paul sent that remarkable message to the Thessalonians.
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is believed to be the earliest writing in the New Testament, and therefore, the oldest existing document of Christianity. Most likely, it was written in the early '50's, barely 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul's ministry to the Gentiles had only just begun.
Scholars surmise that Paul spent a scant three weeks or so in Thessalonika. The letter would have been read to the whole congregation - a small and anxious group who was most likely gathered in one of their homes - as there were no church buildings at the time.
Those men and women had rejected the beliefs with which they had been raised. Beliefs that were dominant in their culture; and recognized by most to be far superior to the ranting and raving of some itinerant preacher about whom wild tales of resurrection and miracles were told. The people to whom Paul wrote had opened themselves to ridicule, to judgement, and to the real possibility of persecution and even death. They desperately needed to hear Paul's words - reassuring words that God loved them and had indeed chosen them.
Sisters and brothers, beloved of God, I know that God has chosen you!
For just a little while let's imagine that Paul wrote those words to us - that his letter came in the mail yesterday... Addressed to all of us right here in the Spirit of the Heartland - to St. Stephen's in Paynesville, to Good Samaritan in Sauk Centre, and to Our Saviour's right here in Little Falls.
Paul says that he knows we are chosen by God - that we are the beloved of God. He knows it because he can see it in our work of faith in our labor of love and in our steadfastness of hope.
We live in a world where many folks are proclaiming that our little rural churches are dying. And it wasn't all that long ago that a good many of us believed that - and perhaps some of us still wonder if we haven't outlived our purpose. Paul's been sending us this letter for years. And for years we've been reading it to dwindling congregations. While we haven't had to meet in our homes, we've certainly been anxious about our survival.
How can our little churches really be of any use to God? Until recently we've been getting smaller and smaller - closer and closer to death. And yet all this time Paul's known that we are chosen and loved by God. He's known that we are meant to live and to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Whether we knew it or not - whether we know it now or not - whether we know it tomorrow - Paul knows it. And I believe that we're beginning to know it too.
On October 6, 2002 this church building was literally filled to overflowing. Some of you may not know that the sanctuary was so full that there were people sitting downstairs watching what was happening upstairs on a video. I don't think that anyone who was able to be here that day could have any doubt that the Holy Spirit is alive and well in the Spirit of the Heartland - filling us up with faith and hope and love.
Years of faith and hope in God's promise that all things really do work for good for those who love the Lord bore abundant fruit that day.
Several years ago, the three churches of the Spirit of the Heartland took a risk and launched into something called Total Ministry. We didn't really understand what it was - and some days we're still pretty confused about it
But one thing that we do know is that it means God loves us, and God has chosen us - Chosen ALL of us to minister together. God has chosen ALL of us to be the Body of Christ God has chosen ALL of us to give to God that which is God's.
And, you know, that's what Total Ministry is really all about..
It isn't about 10 people serving God by ministering to everyone else. It's about every single one of us in each of our churches - every person in this directory (hold up church directory) bringing the talents and gifts we've been given by God to the service of God. Total Ministry is the Ministry of ALL the baptized - not just some of us. It's the ministry of ALL of us spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ in a world that so desperately needs to hear it.
Perhaps it's time for us to start writing our own letters.
Perhaps it's time we began telling our friends and neighbors that they too are children of the living God - a God who loves them and has chosen them to join the body of Christ. After all if Total Ministry really is the ministry of all the baptized, then the words of welcome we exclaim to each newly baptized person make it pretty clear that we're all part of God's work.
The words of love and welcome that we all say to each newly baptized person seem to suggest that Total Ministry is indeed what God, through Paul, has been calling us to do for a very long time:
When baby Whitney was baptized last summer, when Carrie and Maway were baptized this summer, and when Sandy was baptized just last month, we proclaimed it each time:
We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.
Sounds to me like we're all supposed to be priests. AMEN.