"What is That in Your Hand?"

Galatians 6:7-18

In the book of Exodus, in the Old Testament, there is the account of how Moses was called by God to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt into the Wilderness of the Sinai. And ever after this call Moses still wasn't sure if he was up to the job. I'm sure that he must have felt like some preachers, especially those who have been appointed by a bishop to be the pastor or associate pastor of some growing church, maybe somewhere south of Ann Arbor. Called by God for the momentous task of leading the people of Israel, Moses actually had everything he needed to do the God, including the power of Almighty God, but he didn't realize it. He had the talents, those of his own and those of persons around hm. He had the strength. And he even had the tools he needed for leadership. Nevertheless, he doubted himself and argued with God over God's wisdom in choosing him for leadership. And as Moses stood there arguing, God must have been laughing. For there Moses stood, primed for leadership, the most suitable person in Israel for the job, with even the staff of leadership resting in his hand. And there he was arguing! And God's only response to Moses' argument was a question: "Moses -- What's that in your hand?"

God had brought Moses to that very point. God had prepared Moses for the job. God had dressed him for the position. God had given Moses the words to say. And God had even given Moses the symbol of authority. And, so, God reminded Moses of this with the question, "Moses -- What's that in your hand?" It was God's way of telling Moses that he really had little choice in the matter of leadership. God had given Moses everything he needed for ministry. Now it was up to Moses to proceed.

As I am reminded of this story about Moses and read our scripture lesson for today, I am reminded of the reality of God's call upon us and God's gifts to us for ministry. All we have to do is look around to be aware of the enormous potential we have for ministry. We live near a community which houses one of the greatest universities in the world (Eastern Michigan University). Within a half hour's drive are the headquarters of businesses which control billions of dollars around the world and which are responsible for the employment of hundreds of thousands of people. We live in the most powerful, most respected nation upon the earth. What we pay many of our unemployed in unemployment compensation makes them look rich in comparison to at least 50% of the world's population. We are some of the most educated, healthiest, financially endowed, and enabled persons upon the face of the planet. And, so, when God calls us for ministry (as he has called each of us sitting here today), we sort of look rediculous, even comical, when we just stand there, like Moses did spouting excuses. Moses didn't have any viable excuses for his inactivity. And neither do we.

The fact of the matter is that the opportunities for us to minister in the name of Jesus Christ are greater than at any other time in the history of the human race. The needs are so great. For in the midst of our great opportunities, there are the homeless and the hungry, the abusers and the addicted, the lonely and the afflicted. Our jails are overflowing with persons who have been caught and convicted, not to mention those who haven't been caught, all of which indicates the fact that millions of persons are yet to be introduced to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Yet, in spite of such a great opportunity for ministry, how many of us are often caught up in the despair of not really knowing what to do about it? We stand there, like Moses, with everything we need to do the job, the talents, the time, the knowhow. And God has to be asking us, "My people! What is that in your hand?"

As one of the pastors appointed to serve this church, I ask you to join with me in discovering or rediscovering some of those things that God has placed into our hands for ministry, and then I invite you to set forth on the unforgettable adventure of putting those things to God's use.

My wife and I first started out in parish ministry in 1973. We were still attending Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. We had a student parish about 2½ hours east and south of Washington, D.C., on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, on two small islands in the Chesapeake Bay, known as the upper and lower Hoopers Islands. We had two small churches there, one in the community of Fishing Creek, on the upper island, and the other in the town of Hoopersville, on the lower island. The people in that place were very conservative and very hardworking, most of them fishermen, crabbers, and oystermen.

Now, there were two persons on that island parish known lovingly to everyone as Ms Josie and Ms Irene. Everyone on the Island knew who they were, and, in turn, they knew everybody on the Island and the history of just about everyone who had ever stepped foot on Hoopers Island. And what they didn't know, they made up.

But, as far as Ms Josie and Ms Irene were concerned, there weren't any two ladies on the Islands who loved the church more than them. And when it came to drumming up support for the church, there weren't any two ladies on the island who were more willing to stick their necks out for the Lord than them.

The story goes that one day they heard that the church needed money, so they went out collecting in the community from those members who hadn't been to church in a while. They rode together in Ms Irene's car, starting at the northern most house on the island and started their way south along the road that stretched the entire length of the two islands. It was a hot day, and as they were about half way down the island they came to a house with a family that they had never had much luck with getting money for the church in the past. But, they got out of their car and walked up to the door and gave it a knock, anyway.

A man in dirty blue jeans and a sweaty, greasy t-shirt came to the door and immediately knew who they were and what they wanted. They didn't have to say a word. He just looked at them and said, "All right. I ain't got no money on me, right now, so I can't give ya none." Then he pointed to a couple of chickens out in the front yard that just happened to be eating the berries off of a blueberry bush and said, "But if ya can catch them two chickens, they's yours."

Well, there they were, Ms Irene and Ms Josie, each of them wearing her good Sunday go-to-meeting dress, not exactly dressed for chicken chasing. But, they thanked the man kindly and proceeded to catch those two chickens. With a bit of teamwork and cooperation they caught them both, tied their feet together and put them into the back seat of Ms Irene's car.

Now, as far as these two church ladies were concerned, a couple of chickens in the back seat wasn't going to keep them from finishing their collecting for the church. So, they got back in the car and continued going from door to door. But, as I mentioned, it was hot and the two chickens had been eating blueberries. So, after only two or three more houses, Ms Irene and Ms Josie began to notice that the two chickens were getting sick to their stomachs.

Now, I don't know how you can tell if a chicken has a belly ache, but Ms Irene and Ms Josie just knew! So at this point the folks along the road, sitting on their porches, mowing their lawns, riding their bikes, and working in their gardens got to see one of the strangest sights in the history of Hooper's Island. For, as they drove down the road, Ms Irene and Ms Josie each took one of those sick chickens and hung them out the window of the car. And there they went down the road, with big, long, blueberry stains streaking along the side of their vehicle! Nobody had to ask them, "What's that in your hand?" They knew.

In some churches today there has developed an annoying custom of someone interrupting worship or a concert and hollering, "Let's give Jesus a hand," causing everyone to erupt in applause. While this type of enthusiasm is certainly a welcome sign of life (especially in some of our churches), it is also a sign of short-circuited theology.

Jesus doesn't really need our hands slapping together in applause. Rather, Jesus needs our hands moving together in work and witness. From Galatians we are urged "do not grow weary in well-doing," -- a remark that of course assumes that you are already involved in some sort of Christ-oriented labor. Indeed, as Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few." What greater mandate do we need to be involved in the ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ?

Someone once said that Christianity of our day is like a great football game in which there are 22 men on the field desperately in need of rest, watched by 40,000 in the grandstands desperately in need of exercise." How important it is that more of those who are sitting on the sidelines of their church make the important decision of getting more involved. Perhaps, more than anything, this is one of the reasons that one of the trends in worship, these days, is to get more people involved and interactive with what is going on in the service, rather than just sitting there soaking it up.

A project funded by the Lilly Endowment, found that 52% of mainline Protestant adults never donated time to helping the poor, hungry, sick or those unable to help themselves. Furthermore, 78% of mainline adults said they never spent time promoting social justice.

Indeed, sometimes the church can be faulted for involving us in activities that somehow seem to be disconnected from God's call to us to minister. A course listing in last year's catalogue at Hope College, for instance, reads like this:

317.New Testament Ethics -- A study of the moral teachings of the New Testament and the irrelevance of contemporary Christianity.

When the local newspaper reported the error, the school's religion department announced that a printer's error had been made and that the catalogue should have read "relevance," not "irrelevance." And, yet, there are times that in spite of our activity in the church we may feel that it is sometimes a bit irrelevant to what we need for spiritual growth.

Perhaps it is time for us as the church to get a bit more intentional in our activities and our identity. We must consciously transpose Christ's image onto our schedule of meetings, campaigns and fund-raisers. Too often we let the principle of the Sabbath get carried away. We separate Sunday morning from a Monday week and Friday world. If our time of Sabbath rest genuinely refills our spiritual cisterns, the overflow should spill out over the next six days.

From Sunday morning we need to move from thinking about love to doing love. Make forgiveness, love, truth and justice concrete realities in the world. John Wesley said the purpose of the Chritian life was to "have the mind of Christ and walk as he walked." We must invoke the motto of Ignatius of Loyola: "Pray as if everything depended on God; act as if everything depended on you."

In this morning's scripture lesson, Paul emphasizes to the Galilean community that to a large extent, they determine their own quality of life. Sowing to their "own flesh" leads to a harvest of corruption. Does our society, steeped in individualism, shallow consumerism and militarism, and now sitting on a harvest of poverty, pollution and decaying plutonium, really need that fact pointed out to it? Yes! We have got to give Jesus a hand by helping to clean up a dump site, working in a soup kitchen, adopting a public school in the inner city or lobbying for peace.	By sowing to the Spirit with these and other acts, we "work," according to Galatians 6:10, "for the good of all."

As the church we are Christ's body incarnate. Our hands are Jesus' hands. And if we've been called to "sow seeds of faithfulness," that's what we should be doing. Now, I'm not the greatest gardener in the world, but I know that sowing seeds gets your hands dirty, especially your fingernails. Sowing seeds of faithfulness gets your hands dirty, too. The next time someone clamoring for applause shouts "Let's give Jesus a hand," check under their fingernails! Amen.