Worship > Sermon Archive

Deacon Russ Oechsel

February 3, 2008, 2008

Good Morning! This is World Mission Sunday. We have lots of activities today for our Ministry Fair and I want to talk to you about that in the context of mission work. God woke me up early on Wednesday this week about 5:00 a.m. Now, I retired this week, so I didn't have an alarm set and no real need to get up, or at least that's what I thought. But, God thought differently and it was clear to me, at least, He had some things that he was pushing me to begin thinking about in preparation for this sermon today.

What does the term mission mean to you? It comes from a the Latin word, which in English means sent. So, if we think about the Great Commission, the instruction of Jesus to go forth into the world to spread the Gospel, we are all sent to do mission work. In the context that we've talked about before, the mission trip, mission has meant going forth from our place to somewhere else to help others. Now, that's pretty general, but that's ok, because I think that many things we do, as St. Mary's, involves going forth from here and helping others.

I'd like to take a few minutes and ask you to do an exercise. Please close your eyes, quiet yourselves, and think about the last time you did something for someone else. Think about what you did, what motivated you to do it and how it felt. I'll give us a little time and then we'll move on……………………………….. (2 minutes)

Let me bring us back, now. Well, what did you recall about your example of what you did for someone else? What was it that motivated you to do this thing? I can answer that I do things for others out of my concern for others, my relationship with others, my love for others, whether it's for Linda or another of my family, or for someone else outside of my family. But, the important thing is that what motivates me and causes me to act is Love.

Well, here's what I heard the other day when God woke me up. We know that God created us. We know that He loves us. In fact, He loves us so much that He gave us Jesus. He gave us Jesus. How do we know that? (Sing Jesus loves us). I like the season of the church year that we're in right now, the season of Epiphany. I do because during it we have examples of how we know Jesus is God's son. On Epiphany, we hear again the story of the wise men and how they found the baby who was born King of the Jews. The next week we heard the story of Jesus being baptized by John and a voice from Heaven saying this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Then, the next week, we heard about Andrew who called his brother Simon and told him he had found the Messiah. Then, last week we heard about Jesus traveling throughout Galilee proclaiming the good news and curing the sick. And now, this week, we hear the story of Jesus being transfigured, his face shone like the sun and his clothes dazzling white and again, a voice from the cloud saying this is my son, listen to him. So we know from these Gospel stories who Jesus is and that God loves us deeply.

Let's go back to the exercise I asked you to do about remembering the last time you did something for someone else. The thought is that we do things for others out of Love. Let me say again what I heard God say to me. God loves us. Jesus died for us to redeem us. Think about how profound that is.

So here's my difficult question for the day. What are you going to do about that? I sure think it deserves a response. Just like what you did for someone else, we need to respond to God's love for us and figure out what kind of mission work fits with our gifts, abilities, time, etc.

A wonderful thing about the concept of World Mission is that there are absolutely endless opportunities to do mission work. You've heard about them before. We have a fold out in your pew back that contains a pledge form for our 40 days of time and talent during Lent. We have an Outreach Ministry that is funded through our annual budget. This budget funds our efforts in the community. It includes funds that we send to the ERD office (Episcopal Relief and Development). This office funds many mission efforts, including continuing efforts in the gulf coast communities still recovering from Katrina and Rita. The Outreach budget includes Cypress Assistance Ministries, Mummy's orphanage in Nepal, Lord of the Streets (a feeding ministry here in Houston), Boys and Girls Country in Katy, Seafarer's Ministry and other lots of other efforts. We've been on two mission trips to New Orleans, the latest pictures of our work in October are on the wall in the Narthex and we're going back in March. Next Saturday I'm going to Katy with St. Aidan's folks to work on a Habitat for Humanity house. Next Sunday a group will be going downtown to Lord of the Streets to feed homeless people. So, there's no limit to the opportunities.

My prayer for us on this World Mission Sunday is that we will remember how much God loves us and that our response to Him in gratitude is to do mission work for Him. Knowing that in doing this work, we are helping others, we are giving of our abundance, we are living the Great Commission, we're spreading the work of the Kingdom. They will know we are Christians by our Love.

AMEN

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