St. John United
Rev. Jeffrey L. Phillips, pastor
Luke 9:28-36
Transfiguration – imagine!
Jesus’ face and clothes
Moses and Elijah appeared in glory.
Thrilling: “they saw his glory”
The cloud enveloped them and they were terrified, but they survived.
A “near-death experience”?
A true “mountaintop experience”
Peter, James, and John felt most alive.
Jesus is alive, not dead.
We, too, behold his glory once in awhile – and are thrilled.
What Color is Your Parachute? Richard Bolles, first published in 1970, re-issued many times since. In 1968 when people told Bolles, "I'm tired of this job. I'm going to bail out," he playfully responded, “What color is your parachute?”
Finding joy and delight in your work life – that which is thrilling.
“Do what you love; the money will follow.”
Bolles’ book also takes into account the needs of the world, not only your passions.
Fred Buechner (quoted by Bolles), "…the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
Kahlil Gibran, “Work is love made visible.”
80% of people are unhappy at work. Our culture has separated work from passion, and taught us to prefer a higher paycheck to higher happiness. That mistake costs us our souls. The goal of career development is to uncover one's gifts and passions, and link them to the practical needs of the world.
This is the church’s job, too: help people connect their deep passions with the world’s deep needs – T&T Sunday.
God gives us our talents, skills, experience, passions.
God also places us in a world of deep need, and calls us to participate in God’s mission in the world (not our mission, but God’s).
Volunteer, paid, full-time, part-time, in the church, outside the church, it can even resemble a hobby rather than a vocation (cooking, painting, sports)
New
Sometimes doing God’s work is just work, but sometimes, when it’s really something you love and it’s meeting a real human need, it can be thrilling.
You might even say you see God’s glory, and it can change your life.
Peace Corps commercial: “The toughest job you’ll ever love.”
Example: does anyone volunteer? [volunteer story]
What’s your passion? What do you love to do? What thrills you? What sets your soul on fire? Maybe you have more than one.
Answer in pairs (allow time for people to find a partner, even move around).
Now, also in pairs: what do people say you’re good at?
Still in pairs: how might you connect your passion with the needs of our community and world?
Time and Talent Sunday
Dilemma: are we addressing the church’s needs or the world’s needs, or your need to find something to do that is fulfilling?
God’s mission is not the administration and survival of the church. God’s mission is the salvation and welfare of the world.
Yet, the church plays a role in accomplishing God’s mission, so the church has needs, too.
It takes a lot of volunteers to run a church! And thousands of volunteer hours!
But one of my jobs may be to help you see that your real ministry is not in the church, but in the world – maybe at home, or in paid work, or by volunteering with the American Cancer Society or in the politics.
If so, then we have to trust that God will send us people whose real ministries are in helping the church be a well-run organization.
Maybe that’s what this is all about: trusting the Holy Spirit to give people gifts for use in the church, through the church, and beyond the church so that God’s mission will be done in the world.
So I’d like to think we can do all three: help you find your passions and ways to use them, meet the needs of the church for its own survival, and connect your passions with God’s work out there.
A tall order1
Hand out booklets first.
Take a look at them, and you’ll see what I mean. Page after page, we’re presenting the needs of the church as if they’re more important than God’s mission in the world, which we know is not true.
But still, the church needs to be administered well to be a place where people’s passions are ignited, so we give you plenty of ways to plug into that.
But an equally – or even more important - part of the booklet is the last two pages, where we get to connecting your passions with the needs of our community.
Last entry in particular.
Don’t get me wrong! Sometimes our deepest passions can find expression within the church! Teaching, singing, auditing! By all means, consider those!
Example: maybe you find deep joy in caring for others. We can help you do that in the church – Called to Care. This summer.
But one of the best things your church can do for you is help you identify that thing you love to do and connect you to it, whether it’s in the church or outside the church. That’s what we try to do on T&T Sunday.
Hand out pledge forms (forms go with booklets).
As you fill them out, don’t just check the things you always do at church. I urge you to find two new things you’d like to try: one for the church and one for the community.
Sometimes we don’t know we have a passion for something until we try it.
An itch, a curiosity, a stirring of the Holy Spirit…
I want you to know the fullness of God’s glory - abundant life, joyful life. I want you to be thrilled in knowing that you have gifts, and that God can use them for God’s work in the church and in the world.
If you’re visiting today…
Take time now to consider your passions and how to put them to use….
[come forward with T&T pledge forms and Sunday morning offerings]
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