You
Matter:  You Can Change the World

a sermon for FPC
Weslaco by Pastor Sonja Dalglish, M. Div.

August 21, 2011

Exodus 1:8-2:10, Psalm 124:1-8, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew
16:13-20

Introduction

This
has been an amazing and tiring week.
We’ve had 40 campers and 20 youth at Camp Creativity.  It took forty-four adults to plan, prepare,
and put on this camp.  It was a major
endeavor and so successful that one girl said she wanted the day to never end -
and that nothing she’d do Saturday would be as much fun as this week.  And a couple of little boys who did not want
to be there on Monday, left with smiles and waving, called to us, “See  you next year!  I’ll be back next year!”

I
hope that next year those who did not register soon enough will get their
registrations in early — May and June are good times to register.  And a few more of our children will be old
enough to come and be part of a fun week of learning about our faith and
sharing our lives.  You will get to see
many pictures from the week as we are taking up the offering today.  And, there are things we could do
better.  We need to develop a spiritual
program for the youth, a way to bring them together in a way that encourages
them to grow in spirit and serve God.

Texts

When
we consider the Biblical texts, it is interesting to note that the two midwives
have names, Shiprah and Puah, but even to this day, we do not know the name of
the Pharaoh who had forgotten the name of Joseph.  These women were remembered because they
feared God more than they feared Pharaoh, and in that they disobeyed the civil
authority.  They preserved the life of an
infant who would save the Israelites from slavery, a baby who would become
Moses.

This
is also true in the biography that we are reading about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer’s fear and love of God far
outweighed even his very real fear of the Nazi SS who eventually took his
life.  His faithfulness is remembered.  God calls all of us to be faithful – loving
our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Your
life matters.  Your faithfulness as
disciples matters.  The love you show
matters.  What you do each day can change
this world.

Two
books you may be interested in are these.
The first is Living a Life that Matters by Rabbi Harold Kushner.  Kushner urges us to think not of ourselves
but of the needy and the next generation.
Every act of kindness and self-sacrifice brings God’s love into a
selfish world and transforms it.  And
isn’t that what we were doing this past week?
This church has created a climate where faith can grow and be passed
from generation to generation, where people can show love and friendship across
generational barriers and between families.

The
second book is The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews who talks about all the
linkages between our lives.  Andrews “catalogues the extraordinary impact
of simple and courageous efforts. Except when you go back, you can never really
tell which efforts made the biggest difference. So, for instance, should Norman
Borlaug, who developed high yield, disease resistant corn and wheat be credited
with saving two billion lives from famine, or should Henry Wallace, the
one-term U.S. Vice-President, who created an office in New Mexico to develop
hybrid seed for arid climates and hired Borlaug to run it. Or should we credit George
Washington Carver, who took a young Henry Wallace for long walks and instilled
in him his love of plants. Or should it be Moses and Susan Carver, who adopted
the orphaned George as their son. Or should it be… Well, you get the idea.
Andrews points out how inter-connected our actions are, creating an unforeseen
butterfly effect that can ripple across time and space to affect the lives of
millions.” * [David Lose, Working Preacher]

Conclusion

You
matter and what you do matters.
Everything you do matters.  Every
kindness and act of love creates a glow that permeates the darkness.  What you do for your children and neighbors
can spread the love of God or it can begin to kill that love.

This
first week of school, what you do may have impacts that reach far beyond your
lifetime.  What you do and say
matter.  You will change the world.

———

References

Kushner,
Harold, Living a Life that Matters

Andrews,
Andy, The Butterfly Effect, How YOur LIfe
Matters.

Lose,
David,  The Butterfly Effect (sermon) on
Working Preacher

http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=501

GENERAL
INTERCESSIONS

God, you are the source of all wisdom
and knowledge.  Bless those who seek to
learn and their teachers. Bless students, as they begin this new school year,
that the Spirit of God may grant them the gifts of wisdom and understanding.
Bless teachers, that they may share their knowledge with gentleness, patience,
and concern for their students.

For those who seek knowledge of the
things of this world, may they may always pursue God’s wisdom.  For parents, the first teachers of their
children, may their faith and love may be an example to us always.

Lord God, your Spirit of wisdom fills
the earth and teaches us your ways.

Look upon these students. Let them
enjoy their learning and take delight in new discoveries. Help them to
persevere in their studies and give them the desire to learn all things well.

Look upon these teachers. Let them
strive to share their knowledge with gentle patience and endeavor always to
bring the truth to eager minds.

Grant that students and teachers alike
may follow Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, for ever and
ever.  Amen.

[edited and srevised from the Catholic
Culture website.]

Revised
Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, August 21, 2011,

the
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

First Reading Exodus 1:8-2:10

⁸Now
a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹He said to
his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful
than we. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will
increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and
escape from the land.” ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to
oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses,
for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they
multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³The
Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites. ¹⁴and
made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind
of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

¹⁵The
king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and
the other Puah, ¹⁶“When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and
see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she
shall live.” ¹⁷But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the
king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the
king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this,
and allowed the boys to live?” ¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh,
“Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are
vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” ²⁰So God
dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong.
²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²²Then
Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you
shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

¹Now
a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.²The
woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she
hid him three months. ³When she could hide him no longer she got a
papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the
child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴His
sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

⁵The
daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants
walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid
to bring it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying,
and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she
said. ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and
get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” ⁸Pharaoh’s
daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s
daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you
your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰When the
child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her
son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Psalm Psalm 124:1-8

¹   If
it had not been the LORD who was on our side

—
let Israel now say —

²   if
it had not been the LORD who was on our side,

when
our enemies attacked us,

³   then
they would have swallowed us up alive,

when
their anger was kindled against us;

⁴   then
the flood would have swept us away,

the
torrent would have gone over us;

⁵   then
over us would have gone

the
raging waters.

⁶   Blessed
be the LORD,

who
has not given us

as
prey to their teeth.

⁷   We
have escaped like a bird

from
the snare of the fowlers;

the snare is broken,

and
we have escaped.

⁸   Our
help is in the name of the LORD,

who
made heaven and earth.

Second Reading Romans 12:1-8

¹I
appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship. ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the
will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.

³For
by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself
more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each
according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴For as in
one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, ⁵so
we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one
of another. ⁶We have gifts that differ according to the grace given
to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ministry, in ministering;
the teacher, in teaching; ⁸the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver,
in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Gospel Matthew 16:13-20

¹³Now
when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴And they said, “Some
say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of
the prophets.” ¹⁵He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷And
Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell
you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of
Hades will not prevail against it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰Then he
sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.