Sermon: Finding Our Story

Ephesians 4:1-16

 “Finding Our Story”

02 August 2015 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

There is so much to this passage, but that is what we’ve all come to expect from Paul. Letters to congregations chock full of theology. Before we dig a little deeper into these words I want to sum everything up right now. I need your help to make this whole church thing work. Together WE, every single one of us here today from the newest baby to the crustiest Master Chief, make up the Body of Christ and are how people come to know Christ in his material absence. Through grace we all have been given gifts with which to radiate Christ’s love to the world.

The church in Ephesus was divided with people doing their own thing so these words ring true to the individualistic culture in which we find ourselves. The world, especially the military, tells us to get ours. Step on others for promotions. Take advantage of people when you can because it’s their fault they are naïve or don’t know the way things work. The cashier gave you too much change, you just got one over on the man. Finder’s keepers.

Paul says, wait just a second. As Christians we all follow the same Lord, have the same faith, received the same baptism, and were all endowed with gifts to make this whole thing work. Because of this we aren’t here to mimic the world, but rather to be in the world as Christ’s ambassadors to a broken and fractured world. Our faith, our baptism comes with a responsibility not just for our selves, but extends to our families, our friends, our neighbors, our communities, our nation, the world. Not only that, we are expected to lovingly speak the truth of Christ to the world. 

Now, when we look at the world it would be easy to throw our hands up in the air and say there is too much to do, too much pain, too much suffering, too much corruption, too much. And if Christ had looked upon only one of us and said, “Hey you, yeah you. You look like a smart woman who will represent me well to the world. I want you to fix everything you see wrong in the world. Go forth and do good things in my name.” We’d have reason to say it’s too much.

However, Paul tells us it isn’t on any single individual. The Spirit resides in all believers of Christ and blesses each of us with a gift or gifts that will glorify God in the presence of the world. We aren’t in this alone. We are in this together.

There is a rich diversity in Christ, one that we tend to overlook to our detriment. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m new here so I don’t know the breadth and beauty of the diversity upon which I see right now. And I’m not talking about the standard Navy definition of diversity. Sorry, I mean military diversity. It’ll take me a while to get used to being at a Navy command that has Soldiers, Airmen, and Coastguardsmen. And I’m not talking about the typical visions of gender and race we see when we hear the word diversity.

I’m talking about a rich diversity of gifts that provide the stunning, Newberry Award winning illustrations that bring the most amazing story ever told to life in such detail that one can’t help but want to enter into the story. Our specific gifts make Christianity a page-turner that every other piece of literature copies in some form or another. When we truly embrace our gifts we show the world what it can be and we see echoes of this in some of the greatest art and literature throughout the centuries.

Some of you are looking at me thinking this new chaplain is totally off his rocker. Over the next few years I will more often than not prove that to be a fairly accurate assessment. However, I’m just telling you what Paul is saying. Each of us has a specific purpose in life that is gifted upon us by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit. Discovering just what that is can take us a lifetime and is part of what makes following Christ, and frankly life, so interesting and frustrating.

So, how do we determine the gift or gifts the Spirit infused into our souls? That may be the question of our lives. There is a fancy theological word for how we go about figuring out our place in the world and what we are called to do on behalf of God: discernment. In other words, finding our individual story within God’s larger story.

Finding our story as individuals and the collective story of St. Andrew’s Chapel can prove harder than it sounds. That is why the Navy has sent Glen and myself to this wonderful community. We are here to sit in community with everyone and help discover those stories by listening to and telling your stories. But, Glen and I aren’t the only ones tasked with that job.

We all need to pay attention and listen to individual stories and look for where those stories fit into God’s story and plan for our individual lives and the collective story of Christianity. If we try to do this alone, we run the risk of making God’s story the story we choose. So, we have to help each other tell and hear God’s story each and everyday.

Now that is a tall task and we have every right to ask, “How do we ever learn how to listen for God’s story amongst the noise of our own making and that of society?” Well, I’m glad you are asking such insightful questions. That is what the church is for. Whenever we gather as a community, be that two or thousands, this is a learning laboratory. And this is where I need your help.

Because this space, this congregation is a laboratory of learning and discovering how our story fits into God’s story, we need to explore. So, if you have a talent, a gift given in grace, we want to hear about it, we want to see it in action. If you want to explore how dance can benefit worship, we’ll make space for you in worship. Are you a technological genius? Well, we can use you in recording and getting sermons on a podcast for our brothers and sisters underway or on travel. Unlike me, do you have an angelic voice and want to offer that gift to God? Then let us know and we’ll allow that offering in this space.

Do you find yourself artistic? Can you see Christ in everyday things and have the ability to capture that on film? These walls are looking pretty bare and could use some worshipful images to help us meet God in this space. Do you have a heart for service? We’ll start doing some congregational community service events and you can lead one. Have you always wanted to teach Sunday School or work with youth? Then you are truly a saint and Glen and I will ensnare you quickly. If you are a thinker and planner and have ideas of other ways we can hear each other’s stories and place them in God’s story, let me know.

Now, don’t think that you have to be an expert in these areas to offer that gift to this community and thus God. Even if you aren’t sure of a certain gift and you want to explore that in a safe place, this community is where you will be able to see where your story fits into God’s story. Because, in here, grace abounds. You have the freedom to fail.

Sometimes it takes a lot of crumpled paper and frustration before we stumble upon the story arc God has crafted for us. That is why God needs each and every person here today (and even those who couldn’t make it today). Together we’ll stumble along and support each other in finding the narrative that was crafted, the path that was cleared for each of us. We’re in this together. We are the Body of Christ, doing his work with our bodies and telling his story through our stories.

The only thing that matters is doing the best with the gift and talents we have been given. I want you to take a few moments and listen to a song written by a guy named Si Kahn that beautifully describes living into the story we received from the Spirit. And feel free to sing along with the chorus, which will be on the screen. (Play Song)

Discernment, just like story telling, is hard, it’s frustrating, it’s scary, it’s unpredictable. But, when you find your calling you’ll know and it will change the world. Maybe not on a grand scale, but will change yourself, your family, your neighbors, your community, this congregation. People will have no choice but to see Christ radiating from you and will want to hear your story and be a part of God’s story.

New Beginnings

So, now that I am officially living in Singapore and am one of two US chaplains in country, this blog will most likely focus on two things: me living here in Singapore and all this amazing country has to offer and also as a way to communicate sermons and events from St. Andrew's Military Chapel to sailors who are deployed in our area or those from my command that are on travel. As this remains a personal endeavor, nothing posted here is official in any way, shape, or form, but rather a way to reach a few more people than those sitting in the pews each week.

Two Years Ago

I wasn't really aware of how long it has been since I posted something here until I got on to post something about that night two years ago in Hawthorne, NV. Guess I need to pay more attention when I am actually in port and not on a government computer and able to post.

Anyway, today was a special day not just because it is a day in which all of the Deadwalkers from 1/9 remember our seven brothers lost in a mortar explosion. Today, one of the Corpsmen from that night was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his bravery and actions that night. This is the highest award for heroism displayed in peacetime.

On that night, Ian was severely injured by the blast. So much so that he is still recovering from his wounds and has endured multiple surgeries to rebuild his face. Despite his significantly more severe injuries, he repeatedly waved off efforts of others to assist him directing them to his injured Marines. If fact, his airway was blocked and he intubated himself to open the airway, thus saving his own life. I can't even imagine enduring his trauma, much less having the clarity of mind to perform a life saving technique on anyone, including myself.

I didn't get to speak with him that night as he was one of eight Marines and Sailors airlifted to Reno, NV for treatment. However, I was able to speak with him a few days later when he was in between a few surgeries. I walked into his room to check on how he was doing and if there was anything he needed from me or anyone else. Before I could finish saying hello, he had written on a sheet of paper. How are you doing? Corpsman to the core of his being.

The next time I visited two days later, he had an iPad and was rapidly communicating via technology and had been contacted by one of his heroes. Ian, like myself, is from the Triangle and WRAL had done a story on him and alluded to his actions and it came up that he was a huge Duke fan (of course this sat well with his Duke graduate chaplain). Well, Coach K got word of this and personally called Ian's hospital room and spoke with him for a few minutes and promised him the game ball from their upcoming NCAA tournament game and I think also provided him a jersey from that game as well. Small tributes for a outsized man.

I am glad I get to know and work with men and women such as this Devil Doc. He is a Deadwalker to the core.

I got to see photos of him receiving his medal today and am proud of him and his progress towards a full recovery.

Memorial Day Reading

As I sit at home after a long bike ride watching Taking Chance, I thought it would be great to compile a short list of some great things to read on this day when we honor those who gave their full measure of devotion to the cause of their brothers and sisters in arms.

This first one is from Faith and Leadership at Duke Divinity and contains three articles written by Chaplain Mel Baars and two by myself regarding veterans issues and dealing with tragedy in our midst. If you don't have time for them all, read Mel's as she's a much better writer than myself.

http://www.faithandleadership.com/features/articles/resources-for-memorial-day

The next is a great piece that was meant for Remembrance Day (our Veteran's Day). In England and other countries Armistice Day is a day to remember the fallen from the great wars.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/armistice-day-the-forgotten-fields-of-flanders/66409/

And of course, the poem in Flanders Fields: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

Here is a reflection by a Jewish Rabbi at the dedication of a cemetery on Iwo Jima in 1945: http://chaplaincorps.navylive.dodlive.mil/2014/03/26/honoring-the-fallen-in-the-battle-of-iwo-jima-69-years-later/

I highly recommend watching President Regan's speech at the D-Day memorial in 1984: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I

Finally, take an hour and a half and watch Taking Chance. It is a truly powerful depiction of how many people a fallen service member touches in his or her life and death.

One Year Later

This is a time of year when many people are recovering from their celebration of St Patrick last night. However, this time of year is one of reflection for me and many other Marines and Sailors who were with the Walking Dead in Hawthorne, NV.

Personally, I am grateful for not having any night vision goggles that night. If I had some I would have been down range following my Marines and would have been close enough to the blast that at a minimum I would have spent some time in the hospital. The individual with whom I ran the two previous day range events was seriously injured and I was always within arms reach of him.

I learned what secondary trauma looks and feels like. I wasn't on the hill, but I can tell you exactly what it looked like, what it smelled like and what happened in all of its tragic detail. I learned just how surreal it is to know the full story and less than 12 hours later seeing CNN leading the news talking about and making some crazy guesses about what happened.

I miss Josh, Billy, Ripp, Mason, Joshua, David and Rog. We all do. They were good men. Their families raised them right and were so gracious and loving towards us as we all grieved together at many funerals over the span of a week.

But, what I didn't expect was to find so much beauty in the midst of all that carnage. I saw bravery and heroism that we don't speak much of in peacetime and training. There are Marines and Sailors that are here who wouldn't have made it without the quick thinking of those on the scene and due to the amazing leadership and training of the Battalion Surgeon.

I saw communities pour out their hearts for their lost sons and welcome their brothers in arms as if we had grown up right alongside them. I saw people lining a highway for 50 miles to honor someone they never met, people pulling over to the side of the road just to nod to those of us in a long processional. I saw a funeral crowd for a Lance Corporal that surprised and briefly overwhelmed the staff at Arlington.

That night and the events that followed impacted me and made me a better chaplain, a better minister and a better person.

I leave you with the memorial remarks at the two memorial services; one at Bridgeport and one at Camp Lejeune.  

Shipboard Ash Wednesday

Many here may have arrived out of mere curiosity. Some have participated in this service for as long as they can remember. So why are we here on this Wednesday?

We come here in this place and time to mark ourselves in an overtly outer manner as Christians. This is the one time where we do this. Why do we mark ourselves in such a bold way when Jesus says, “beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them?” Does this practice violate what Jesus expects of us in the Sermon on the Mount?

I don’t think so, because of the motives involved in what we are doing here today. This isn’t in the same manner that the hypocrites of Jesus’ day showed off their fasting. This is only for one day, if that long, as most people will wash the ashes off at some point in the day. It will mark you as a believer in a world where believing isn’t always looked upon positively. It may mark you as odd, an outsider. It probably won’t bring you respect or fame. It may just end up getting you ridicule or weird looks.

But, it’s not to let the world know we are Christians. We are called to let the world know through our actions. It is placed on our foreheads as a reminder. We forget many things, for example that God is God and we are not. We forget we are sinners. We forget that we don’t really know what a fast is. We forget that we have tendencies that make us like the hypocrites in the Gospel passage from today. We forget that from dust we came and to dust we shall return. We need a physical mark that we feel as it is applied as our reminder.

In Jesus’ time, people would walk around in sackcloth (essentially a burlap sack) and put dust or ashes on their heads to show that they were either repenting from something or in mourning. And because they believed that sins could lead to suffering the two reasons for walking around with ashes on their bodies were very similar. They would let the world know they were turning away from something. They wanted to whole world to know their sins and pain.

But, Jesus came along and said that is not what God wanted. God wanted them to repent in a more private manner. If they are fasting they should put oil on their head and wash their face. The fast God chose is different from what humans choose when they fast. We want everyone to know we are fasting, Jesus proclaims that isn’t necessary because God already knows that you are fasting and the reason behind that fast.

So what is the fast that God chooses and what does that mean for us? God chooses a different kind of fast than we typically understand the word fast. We think it has to involve giving up something for the next 40 days. Actually, its more than 40 days because you get to break the fast every Sunday. We give up things like candy, meat, soda, caffeine, sweets, TV, facebook, etc. These things get so involved in our life that we think giving them up is so difficult that we offer that denial up to God as our fast during Lent. Others will take on extra duties and responsibilities as part of their Lenten discipline. Both of these are acceptable, but is that really what God chose as his fast?

In today’s reading, Isaiah speaks for God and describes the fast God chooses. It’s not what we might consider a fast by today’s standards and today’s culture. Isaiah asks if humbling yourself in sackcloth and ashes with your head down for the whole world to see is the fast God chooses. Because this fast only serves to make us have righteous justification for looking down on others who don’t do the same. Our fast should be lasting and mirror what God wants. That is why we mark ourselves to remember this fast.

Our fast should be one of destroying the bonds of injustice where we find them; lifting oppression anywhere we find it and setting people free. Sharing our bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless and poor into all aspects of our lives, including our homes. Clothing those who need basic articles of clothing. Isaiah says “if you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.”

This fast is something that we can do as sailors. It’s hard to give up certain foods for 40 days while underway or working crazy hours. It’s hard to give up caffeine when coffee may be the only drink available. That kind of fast is setting you up for failure and the frustration that comes with it. It’s more like a New Year’s resolution rather than a spiritual discipline, which will change your life and mold you to be like Christ.

The fast God chooses is life changing, done in private and becomes natural. This fast lasts more than 40 days. This fast changes other people. This fast doesn’t require outward signs that you are fasting because when you participate in this fast, people can’t help but know that you are marked. These ashes remind us of this fast, the fast that God chose. The same fast that God asks you to choose today.

Remembering Guadalcanal

I’ve been out to sea for almost a month, so no real activity on the blog because not much noteworthy happens on an open ocean transit. But, sometimes an amazing opportunity presents itself.

One of the great things about this who Navy Chaplain gig is that I get to travel to some amazing places and am provided with opportunities that most pastors never consider possible. I was honored and humbled to participate in a remembrance service off the coast of Guadalcanal this past week.

The CO of the ship on which I am currently embarked received a note in his suggestion box regarding a family connection with a survivor of the Battle of Guadalcanal. The sailor briefly described how is grandfather was in the battle and the ship he was on sank in Savo Sound, commonly referred to as Iron Bottom Sound because there are 46 warships resting on the bottom following 6 months of battles. This sailor also wrote that it was a dream of his since joining the Navy to make it to that specific spot in the ocean.

On the same night the sailor placed the suggestion, he stopped me in the passageway and gave me a brief rundown of how excited he was that he may travel close to the site of his grandfather’s ship. The next morning, the CO mentioned the note and asked me if I would put together a short service in case we passed close by the wreckage of the USS LAFFEY. As luck would have it, we were not only traveling through Savo Sound to refuel in Guadalcanal, our track was close enough that we could alter course slightly and pass directly over the LAFFEY.

I worked with the sailor and developed a short remembrance service to honor all who perished in the Guadalcanal campaign. This sailor created a memorial of sorts by adding a weight to his Dixie Cup (that is the trademark white cover that enlisted sailors wear) that he could place in the water and have it rest close to the ship.

With everything set, about 40 of us gathered on the flight deck as we departed Guadalcanal and with both Guadalcanal and Savo Island in clear view we conducted a short ceremony. In addition, the sailor chose to re-enlist in the Navy in the same spot in which his grandfather survived a major naval battle and the sinking of his ship.

No matter how long I am a chaplain, I will always remember two things about this whole experience off Guadalcanal. The look on a sailor’s face when I told him that the CO wanted me to do a ceremony to honor his grandfather and fulfill a life long dream of that sailor. And, the fact that I was called upon by a ship to conduct a ceremony in some historic waters, somewhere I may never have the opportunity to set my sight upon again.

This is what being a chaplain is all about.