My feet hurt. But it’s a good hurt. At least it should be. It is my head and I’m trying to convince my feet about that. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.
I’m still at Choir School here at Anderson University. I’m in a bit of a lull. I finished my ninth worship service, ninth sermon, this morning at 8am (yeah, we get started early around here), and I don’t have to preach again until my tenth sermon of the week tomorrow morning. Four days this week I preached morning and evening services, but tonight is the Sacred Concert (7pm Friday July 27th, Central Christian Church, downtown Anderson, if you choose to skip or DVR the opening of the Olympics and want to check it out).
So, I had time on my hands and decided to turn to my 11th sermon since last Sunday morning at Aldersgate and get this bible study done early. Saturday morning is closing worship at Choir School and then we lunch with some of those who hang around long enough to follow Maddie’s instructions to the Olive Garden. In years past this post choir school meal was always a problem because no one would make a decision as to where we should go to eat. Thank God Maddie started coming a few years ago, she always has an opinion about where to eat. So, she has become the official eating place chooser - with great power comes great responsibility, you know.
There is a lot of adrenalin in preparation for the final concert, but you can tell that folks are tired. We’ve been pushing hard this week, and none of us are as young as we used to be. Even the young people aren’t as young as they used to be! But it is a good tired.
I used to hear that designation and scoff. Tired is tired, you know. Energy expended, muscles strained, sleep in shorter supply, tired is tired. And yet we know when that energy is expended in an activity that gives such joy, when muscles are strained working together in a community that loves and cares for one another, when is sleep is lost because time needs to spent catching up on friends you only see once a year at this thing called Choir School and the only time left to do that (because of rehearsals and worship and classes and meals and programs) is late into the night when we can laugh with one another into the wee hours that we don’t even know are passing until someone spies and clock and we gasp, and scurry off to our beds for whatever remains of the night.
Sure it is a sacrifice, of time and schedules, energy and effort, but it is a sacrifice worth making. Some sacrifices are like that. Worth the pain of the sacrifice, because if it is a sacrifice it will hurt, it is the nature of the thing. But it is a hurt you are willing to bear. Because of love.
Paul writes about this odd concept. We are responding to the “question” from our congregation: “I want to know more about the book of Romans.” OK, not really a question but you get the idea. On Sunday I’ll include talk about the whole book in addition to focusing on the passage I chose to represent that book, or that letter since that is what it is. But for this effort let’s just look at the verses I chose to sum up the Epistle to the Romans.
Romans 12:1-8 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Actually some really good verses follow these eight, so feel free to keep reading. Or to back up and get a flavor of the whole book. But I liked these verses because it contains two of the important ideas from the Epistle.
The first idea Paul presents is that God wants all of us. Each of us, yes, but all of each of us. All of you, all of me. God wants it all. So, present your bodies! Paul means literally that, present them. Offer your whole being to God for service, for worship, for transformation, for all of it. And don’t get caught up in serving like the world does, serve like Christ does, not for return, not for gain, but for love.
A labor of love is how many folks here at Choir School describe this event. Work yes, but work we love. With people we love. Appreciating the gifts and abilities, the talents of those we love. And since no one can do everything, we need to share those responsibilities and efforts.
That’s the second idea that Paul returns to again and again. We have gifts that differ, he says in this passage. We all are different parts, he says in other places. But we give them and share them, these gifts. We give them away for the joy of others, for laughter and for tears. We serve together as a part of a community. We grow together, learning from one another and helping one another to learn. We sing and we worship together, we break bread and tell stories together, we let one another into our lives in sometimes surprising depth for a week long event. Many of us have been coming for years (I started in 1996, some way back in the 50's and 60's if you can imagine) and we are family.
And for family you will work yourself down to the last bit of strength and energy. You’ll present your bodies as living sacrifices to those you love. One sermon a week seems strenuous to me at times, ten in one week seems impossible, but I’ve been doing it almost non-stop since 1996 - I did miss two years in that time, so this is my 15th anniversary of preaching at choir school. I amazes even me. But I love it and it has been good for me to do this in a difficult year. I feel renewed and ready to come back to work at Aldersgate. Once I get a nap that is.
Present your bodies, pour out your energy, your whole self in service to God, be a living sacrifice. And play your part, do what you’ve been given to do, whether it is preach or sing, or administer or serve, whether it is comfort and heal or challenge and push, do what is within you to do with all that is within you, don’t hold back. And you will reap the rewards of love and joy, satisfaction and hope.
And be really, really tired. And have sore feet. And a smile on your face.
Shalom,
Derek
I’m still at Choir School here at Anderson University. I’m in a bit of a lull. I finished my ninth worship service, ninth sermon, this morning at 8am (yeah, we get started early around here), and I don’t have to preach again until my tenth sermon of the week tomorrow morning. Four days this week I preached morning and evening services, but tonight is the Sacred Concert (7pm Friday July 27th, Central Christian Church, downtown Anderson, if you choose to skip or DVR the opening of the Olympics and want to check it out).
So, I had time on my hands and decided to turn to my 11th sermon since last Sunday morning at Aldersgate and get this bible study done early. Saturday morning is closing worship at Choir School and then we lunch with some of those who hang around long enough to follow Maddie’s instructions to the Olive Garden. In years past this post choir school meal was always a problem because no one would make a decision as to where we should go to eat. Thank God Maddie started coming a few years ago, she always has an opinion about where to eat. So, she has become the official eating place chooser - with great power comes great responsibility, you know.
There is a lot of adrenalin in preparation for the final concert, but you can tell that folks are tired. We’ve been pushing hard this week, and none of us are as young as we used to be. Even the young people aren’t as young as they used to be! But it is a good tired.
I used to hear that designation and scoff. Tired is tired, you know. Energy expended, muscles strained, sleep in shorter supply, tired is tired. And yet we know when that energy is expended in an activity that gives such joy, when muscles are strained working together in a community that loves and cares for one another, when is sleep is lost because time needs to spent catching up on friends you only see once a year at this thing called Choir School and the only time left to do that (because of rehearsals and worship and classes and meals and programs) is late into the night when we can laugh with one another into the wee hours that we don’t even know are passing until someone spies and clock and we gasp, and scurry off to our beds for whatever remains of the night.
Sure it is a sacrifice, of time and schedules, energy and effort, but it is a sacrifice worth making. Some sacrifices are like that. Worth the pain of the sacrifice, because if it is a sacrifice it will hurt, it is the nature of the thing. But it is a hurt you are willing to bear. Because of love.
Paul writes about this odd concept. We are responding to the “question” from our congregation: “I want to know more about the book of Romans.” OK, not really a question but you get the idea. On Sunday I’ll include talk about the whole book in addition to focusing on the passage I chose to represent that book, or that letter since that is what it is. But for this effort let’s just look at the verses I chose to sum up the Epistle to the Romans.
Romans 12:1-8 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Actually some really good verses follow these eight, so feel free to keep reading. Or to back up and get a flavor of the whole book. But I liked these verses because it contains two of the important ideas from the Epistle.
The first idea Paul presents is that God wants all of us. Each of us, yes, but all of each of us. All of you, all of me. God wants it all. So, present your bodies! Paul means literally that, present them. Offer your whole being to God for service, for worship, for transformation, for all of it. And don’t get caught up in serving like the world does, serve like Christ does, not for return, not for gain, but for love.
A labor of love is how many folks here at Choir School describe this event. Work yes, but work we love. With people we love. Appreciating the gifts and abilities, the talents of those we love. And since no one can do everything, we need to share those responsibilities and efforts.
That’s the second idea that Paul returns to again and again. We have gifts that differ, he says in this passage. We all are different parts, he says in other places. But we give them and share them, these gifts. We give them away for the joy of others, for laughter and for tears. We serve together as a part of a community. We grow together, learning from one another and helping one another to learn. We sing and we worship together, we break bread and tell stories together, we let one another into our lives in sometimes surprising depth for a week long event. Many of us have been coming for years (I started in 1996, some way back in the 50's and 60's if you can imagine) and we are family.
And for family you will work yourself down to the last bit of strength and energy. You’ll present your bodies as living sacrifices to those you love. One sermon a week seems strenuous to me at times, ten in one week seems impossible, but I’ve been doing it almost non-stop since 1996 - I did miss two years in that time, so this is my 15th anniversary of preaching at choir school. I amazes even me. But I love it and it has been good for me to do this in a difficult year. I feel renewed and ready to come back to work at Aldersgate. Once I get a nap that is.
Present your bodies, pour out your energy, your whole self in service to God, be a living sacrifice. And play your part, do what you’ve been given to do, whether it is preach or sing, or administer or serve, whether it is comfort and heal or challenge and push, do what is within you to do with all that is within you, don’t hold back. And you will reap the rewards of love and joy, satisfaction and hope.
And be really, really tired. And have sore feet. And a smile on your face.
Shalom,
Derek
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