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“Patience, Faith, Reward”
II Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Access Awareness Sunday
June 25, 2006
As teenagers in our early faith
life, my sisters and I belonged to an organization in town called Job’s
Daughters. It was a Masonic group for young girls at the temple in La Crosse,
WI. We saw friends from school, had meetings and fulfilled philanthropic
obligations in our neighborhoods; ice cream socials, or things similar to the
Girl Scouts of which we were also a part. More importantly, we planned week-end
dances with our counterparts-the De Molays! Our leader was Mom Schultz, teaching
us to respect adults, friends and foes, and learn from and serve with each
other. She was helping us build loving relationships in our religious life and
faith.
In our meetings we had to remember
three words: patience, faith, and reward. Patience as a virtue; Faith
in times of trial; and Reward from the goals we established together and
individually. At the time, I felt I was learning my faith, but really, my
sisters and I were allowing our beliefs to blossom as best they could in our
relationships with others.
These virtues, patience, faith,
and reward were instilled within us through functions of our officers;
scriptural readings–my sister was chaplain, musical song–my sister was
musician, and leadership organization of projects– I was Honored Queen!!
Really, we were, without knowing it, through our own God-given gifts and
talents, allowing ourselves to measure and improve our functional lives.
In our text for today, Paul is
telling the Corinthians, and us, that we can and need to accentuate the virtues
that have been given to us as gifts/talents through the grace of God. Paul has
mixed emotions here and throughout this letter; he is proud of his people in
Corinth, as he founded their church. At the same time he appeals to them about
their outward appearances that don’t match the greater reality of their inner
hearts. He speaks of intangible virtues of purity, knowledge, patience,
kindness, and genuine love, that out-way physical hardships of afflictions,
calamities, beatings, riots, sleepless nights, and hunger. Paul also tells us of
the weapons of righteousness from God, in Christ, for our hands–it is how we
labor with our hands that the rewards may/will come. Really, in our good times
and in our bad, we are one in Christ through the grace of God, says Paul, and he
reminds his listeners, often!
The stress for the disciples in
the night of the storm in our gospel of Mark is similar to the adversities and
virtues of the Corinthians, even though it is fear vs. faith. Jesus, as calm as
can be, asks the cowardly disciples where their faith is, insinuating that
without it they will succumb to the storms in their lives, not just the
rainstorm they are in on Lake Galilee. As we know, the disciples, like us, are
slow to ‘get it’, but in their defense, perhaps anyone seeing and
believing the healing parables of Jesus are in awe at his miraculous moves!
( Mark 1:21-25, 4:35-41, 5:1-20,
7:24-30, 9:14-29, and others).
Being calm or calmed in the storms
of life are rather familiar to many of us. They are fearful and stressful
and they happen; it is part of life. Have you been in a situation or time in
your life when you had aspirations or goals? Yet you were not really sure how,
when, or if you would be comfortable with the outcome? Perhaps it is now as you
listen to your new pastor; you have goals for your church, and have seen or been
part of storms that have been brewing. In your questions, in your faith and hope
and life, are your goals attainable, in your personal or faith life?
I have aspirations and goals for
myself as many of you do too. My goal of becoming a church parish pastor has
been interesting, very challenging, and now, by the grace of God, I know in my
patience and faith, I have been rewarded in being called and placed here with
you all in Cambridge. By your search committee and our Session working together,
we have many goals to attain, and we will work very hard together to meet your
goals as members.
For me, I am convinced, now, that
I had to have this time of a year and a half from my schooling, exams, and
open-pulpit preaching before my call to be with you. Little did I know after
seminary, after so many indications, that this is all God’s timing, not mine. I
was so anxious to begin ministry, but I needed to learn about pastoring in small
churches, I needed to apply my experiences of faith. I was as defiant as Job but
learned, oh, so slowly, the patience of Job, a whole lot of patience, in the
Presbyterian process of being ‘decently and in order.’ I did have sleepless
nights thinking if it ever would come for me to be a Minister of the Word and
Sacrament in the PC(USA).
I have found, after this time
being in over twenty (20) churches in our Presbytery, that the members are ever
so tolerant, teaching to/with others, and trustful in speaking in God’s Name. As
my faith in action has grown, I have been taught and led by the Spirit and you
and others to be who I am before you. I have overcome fears of how and when
things are done, and found a calming of my mind, body, and spirit; God is in the
lead through Christ who is in the stern. I believe that in our life, in our
faith, we are all called to be disciples in/with Christ.
The good news of the gospel for us
is that our Christian faith is basically trust in and obedience to
the fully and freely gracious God made known to us in Christ Jesus. We
believe in a God who calls us, each of us, in our faith to ask questions, and to
struggle to find answers; we seek to find where and how God is leading us
together in Christ’s Name. Our faith is being transformed; it sings, confesses,
prays, rejoices, and invites action! We can, in our faith, with patience, and in
God’s speed, attain goals and receive rewards.
Yes, we, like Jesus’ disciples,
are fearful of sickness, suffering, guilt trips, injustice, personal upheavals,
and even death. Yet, we believe in a sovereign God, a God who has made
everything good; a living, loving God in Christ, and a transforming power in us
through the Holy Spirit. God is greater than we are, can calm storms within us.
We are led by the Spirit to accomplish perhaps what we never dreamed, believed,
we could possibly attain. My sisters and brothers, as Christ’s own, we can, in
faith, with patience, and reaping rewards, follow our Leader. We can answer the
disciples, “Who is this?”, and say, “This is our God, in Christ Jesus, in whom
the wind and the sea, obey Him!”
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD.
THANKS BE TO GOD. AMEN.
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