The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for March 2, 2008

Texts: Psalm 23/1Samuel 16:1-13

Title: “Change Agents”

              A mere six months ago the junior Senator from Illinois was regarded in the minds of many voters across the nation as too young and too inexperienced to be considered a viable candidate for the presidency.  The field of Democrats vying for the party’s nomination included four other United States Senators whose collective experience in the Senate surpassed his by decades, a former Senator who was the party’s nominee for Vice President four years ago, at least one respected member of the House of Representatives, a governor who boasted broad experience and solid credentials, and at least one or two other candidates who could be best be regarded as long-shots for their party’s nomination. A mere six months ago the junior Senator from Illinois was just one of a strong field of contenders for the nation’s highest office.         

              A mere six months ago the senior Senator from Arizona was regarded in the minds of many in his party to be too old, too under-funded, and too out of touch with his party’s base to be considered a viable candidate for the presidency.  The field of Republicans included a successful former governor and businessman, a second governor still serving his state, and the former mayor of the nation’s largest city. A mere six months ago the senior Senator from Arizona was just one of a strong field of contenders for the nation’s highest office. 

              Fast forward to this week, and the junior Senator from Illinois is by all accounts the odds on favorite to win his party’s nomination to the presidency.  Fast forward to this week, and the senior Senator from Arizona has his party’s nomination basically sown up. 

              Let’s leave it to the political analysts to sort out the last six months.  There is, however, one factor that no one who has witnessed the two campaigns play out can ignore.  In the case of the junior Senator from Illinois certainly, and for the senior Senator from Arizona, but to a lesser degree, the stunning rise in popularity of each is attributable to one thing. They are looked upon as men who can bring change.

              Poll after poll reveal that voters in the two political camps, and voters who claim independent status, are dissatisfied with the ways things are, and want change.

              No one six months ago no one would have predicted that Obama and McCain would have separated themselves so dramatically from their opponents as to be virtually assured of their respective party’s nomination. It is the public perception that the two might bring change that did it. 

              While there may have been individuals who foresaw the rise of Obama and McCain, it is fair to say that virtually no one else, and that includes those who make a living studying and writing about politics, could have predicted that the names of these two men would appear on the November presidential ballot.

              Step back with me now.  It’s late in the tenth century BC.  Saul, Israel’s first king is seated on the throne. Saul has done some good things in his reign of over thirty years, but he has also done other things to offend God.  At some point the offensive things outweighed the good things, God concluding that it was time to make a change.

              So what did God do?  God commissioned his prophet Samuel to find him a new king, instructing him to go to the home of Jesse in Bethlehem. Now Jesse had seven sons at home with him when Samuel came calling.  At Samuel’s request Jesse called his seven sons together and had them line up for Samuel.  The eldest always earned special privileges in the ancient cultures. There was Eliab, the eldest, Abinadab, the next in birth order, and then Shammah.  The three eldest boys having stood before Samuel, the four other sons of Jesse presented themselves.

              No, not one of these seven sons of Jesse fit the bill. “But wait,” Samuel asked, “have you no other sons?”  Oh yes, there was one other son, the youngest, but he was out tending to the sheep.  “Call him.  Bring him here,” Samuel ordered.  The rest, of course, is history.

              David, youngest of Jesse’s sons, shepherd boy. Unpredictable, God wanted change and he appointed the most unlikely person to initiate it. The shepherd boy was  anointed king.

              The king of Egypt decreed that all male children of the Israelites be killed.  Even as the children were being killed, God heard the cries of his people and interceded to change things.  The baby Moses survived the slaughter. No one would have predicted that that baby would grow up and eventually go toe to toe with the powers of Egypt, earning the liberation of the Israelites from bondage. 

              Don’t count on God to be predictable when he wants to change things.  You never know who he might use to accomplish his will.  There lived in Galilee a young couple, she pregnant with the couple’s first child.  Nothing special about them at all.  They were young and had yet to put their feet on the ground.  The young woman gave birth to a son in an obscure little village.  The boy would rise from obscurity, teaching, preaching, and doing all sorts of miraculous things to announce that God was up to something new on earth.                       

              God wanted change.  He wanted the world, not just the Jews, to hear the message of salvation his son had brought.  He could have chosen any from a number of his son’s disciples to do the deed, but he chose someone else, a persecutor of his son’s followers no less.  Saul, later Paul, persecutor of Christians, would, at great personal sacrifice and suffering great hardship, would find his life by losing it in a vocation committed to spreading the good news of Jesus.  

              While it remains to be seen if the unpredictable rise of Obama and McCain above their separate field of candidates will eventually produce the changes that so many of the citizens would like to see, who is to deny that God might be using one, or perhaps both of those men, to accomplish his will.

              Moses, David, and Paul rose from obscurity to fulfill their separate destinies under God.  Jesus himself rose from obscurity to fulfill his destiny as the savior of the world.  There are people today who are being groomed to do extraordinary things on the big stage.  They may be people who bring hope to people who calling for change. They may be people whose destiny it is to find a cure for cancer.  They may be people whose destiny it is to invent some inexpensive and safe source of energy that won’t harm the planet. They may be people who will discover ways and means to reconcile nations.

              God is grooming change agents for the big stage, conferring gifts of vision, courage, imagination, and intellect that may well change the course of human history.  It could happen.

              Though God may be grooming one of us for a place on the big stage, God may have chosen us to be change agents in a smaller arena, in the family, for instance, or the community, or even the church. There is no predicting when, or through whom, God may show up to change a life, perhaps even your life.

              I believe God empowers you and me to be change agents.  The other night during our Lenten study one of those attending referenced a passage from the book we are studying suggesting that just three words spoken by one person to another at a particular time can have greater impact then the best sermon ever preached.  Decisions regarding marriage or career or some other major life issue have been made on the basis of a few words spoken at the right time Like seeds in the ground those words so briefly spoken might well produce change of a magnitude beyond imagining.

              I have seen that kind of thing occur in my own life, and perhaps you have too.  Several years ago I was experiencing a personal crisis.  I was struggling mightily. Though my family was very supportive and encouraging, in this instance they could be of little help.  I felt as if I were on an island.

              On this particular day I had really bottomed out, it was one of those March days in Minnesota that are very dreary. I got word that day that a friend of mine from my hometown was visiting his sister in the city where I was living. It was a diversion I was seeking when I went to her house, nothing more, something to make an hour or two pass easier.

              I was welcomed by my friend’s sister, Martha, at the door.  It turned out my friend Tom was not there.  Aside from asking for him at the door, that was the only time that Tom’s name came up in the three hours I spent in Martha’s home. 

Martha had no credentials in counseling, but she was credentialed where it counted, she was credentialed as one of those people God places in our lives when our need is the greatest.  Some of you have had the good fortune to meet up with a Martha along the way.

            My whole outlook on my personal situation changed as a result of three hours with Martha.  I was healed by a women who had been healed herself by someone who had come to her side when she was suffering through a painful divorce. 

Today’s psalm selection, the twenty-third psalm, portrays God as the ever vigilant shepherd who will never abandon us. It is the most compelling and personal depiction of God to be found in the entire Bible.

             Psalm twenty-three has given comfort and consolation to millions of believers over the centuries, not necessarily because God appeared before their eyes in some kind of blinding light, but because the comfort and consolation the words of the psalm offer came to life in people God placed in the lives of those believers.  

              It is not doctrines and creeds that are responsible for the ways in which we conceive of God.  Doctrines and creeds have little power to move and change us, rather it is those people who God sends us, often in the most casual and unexpected ways, that give us a new outlook on God and on life.

              No one has ever seen God, but we have been privileged to see his agents. I would encourage you to spend some time today or this week thinking about that person, or those persons, who have helped to shape your outlook on God and the world.  Ask yourself what characteristics of those persons stood out, and then pick up your Bible and slowly and deliberately read the twenty-third psalm. I guarantee you will make some real connections between the person you have held up, and the God described by the psalmist.

              Change agents are all around us.  Two persons running for the nation’s highest office have seen their popularity rise because they are perceived as change agents. There are change agents at work at the desk next to yours, in the adjoining seat on the airplane, at the health club where you work out, the salon where you have your hair done.  God has equipped all kinds of people, in the most unlikely of places and circumstances to offer you a window on his kingdom.  God has equipped each one of us to be such a person.

               Tom Bandy, the church transformation consultant we have been working with shares this thought in his book, “Kicking Habits,” he writes, “the fundamental reason new people come to church is not to ‘belong,’ but to ‘be changed.’” We serve a Lord who changes lives, and we who are being changed through our service in that Lord’s name, are privileged, God working through us, to be agent’s of change, as the Good News Jesus brought is embodied in us.      AMEN

PRAYER

              Eternal God, who comes to us at unexpected times, and through unexpected people, we thank you for the grace you dispense when our need is great. We remember with gratitude those mentors and fellow travelers we have had the privilege of meeting and spending time with. In this silence we lift up the names of those who have impacted our lives through special words spoken, special deeds done. Pause.  We acknowledge the blessings you have conferred on us by giving us the words, or inspiring deeds, through which we might impact the lives of others. Open the eyes of our hearts that we might recognize new opportunities to help that brother or sister who has special needs.

            O Christ, head of the church.  Prosper all that we do as a congregation to fulfill your holy charge.  We seek your counsel and guidance in this season of discernment as we look for ways to make our church a more vital and faith centered ministry.  We acknowledge before you the stress we feel as we attempt to clarify our beliefs, values, and mission. We acknowledge the stress we feel in unlearning practices that have outlived their usefulness. Grant us wisdom, faith, and courage, O Lord, to go where your Spirit is leading. Teach us patience when frustration mounts, and forbearance when those we rely upon disappoint us.

            O God, we praise you for the wonders of creation that greet us each new day.  We praise you for animal and plant life, for trees, flowers, and flowering plants.  We praise you for the rains that replenish the earth, and the sun that sustains life.  We praise you for the insects and other life forms that inhabit the soil, fertilizing and enriching it that it might yield crops.  We praise for the beauty of the earth and the power it exerts on the imagination of the artist, the poet, the architect.  Marvelous, O Lord, is your creation.       

             Living God, be with those whom the recent economic downturn has made vulnerable. In your mercy attend the unemployed, and those who face the forced sale of their homes. We pray, O God, for those who must choose between food on the table and needed medication. We pray for the pensioner who lacks the resources to make ends meet.  We pray for those who are unable to meet medical premiums, who forgo needed medical care because of an inability to pay. We pray for children who are ill-fed and ill-clothed, even as their parents struggle to make do on a minimum wage.

               Abide, O Lord, with those who occupy positions of authority in our government, those to whom we turn to make decisions on the public’s behalf.  Grant wisdom to our leaders that partisan bias not compromise needed legislation. Support the candidates for the presidency as they attempt to map out an agenda for the future, and grant them emotional and physical strength equal to the challenges that campaigning presents.

             Lord, our Lord, hear the prayers of those who bring special needs to this place, those who are being tested, those who harbor fears, those who fear the future, and those who fear they have no future.  Be with our youth as they face the challenges that life in our nation present.  Support them when they are challenged to make bad choices. Brace them against the tyranny of peer pressure, the pressure they feel to fit in and conform.

           We pray for special blessings on behalf of…   

Lord, we thank you for new life and new beginning that you daily offer, may this day offer us a fresh start, an opportunity to chart a new course, a course that will draw us closer to thee.  In Christ’s name…