The Work of the People

Psalm 23; Luke 9:10-17

July 30, 2017

The readings this morning pretty much speak for themselves, so just a couple of extraordinarily brief remarks on these texts:

First, they are both about abundance. The green pastures and overflowing cup remind the psalmist that God has given us all that we need. Jesus understands this such that even looking out at a huge throng he trusts that there will be enough to go around and more than enough.

Second, the story from Luke is about the people, given what they need, doing together what they need to do in order to make use of what they have been given. It is a story of a liturgy of feeding.

Y’all know that I have a certain fondness for a few particular New Testament Greek words: agape – that wonderful, rich word that indicates a selfless love that gives without regard to risk; kairos – the word for time when time itself overflows with possibility; metanoia – the word usually translated as “repent” but which suggests something deeper than a merely religious act and points toward a more profound turning on the road of life.

Yup, I love those words. But my favorite word from New Testament Greek is the one I remind us of here so often: liturgy. It means, literally, the work of the people. It comes from a pair of Greek works litos and ergos. Litos is also the root from which we derive laity, or lay people (which, come to thing of it, is redundant). Ergos, which is translated as work, refers to the power to do something.

Liturgy has come to mean merely the order of worship for a faith community, but if we hold fast to the roots of the word we discern also a deep connection between worship and work, or, in churchy words, between worship and mission.

That connection ought to be clear always. We ought, as the wall hanging outside of the sanctuary reminds us, always remember that we enter this space to pray and we leave it to serve.

At our best, we’re doing both of those things at once: praying with our hands and feet as well as with our hearts and minds.

This morning we’re going to do that without leaving the sanctuary.

There are many worship stations this morning including the obvious – the tables in the center of the space. In response to the word read and proclaimed this morning you are invited to participate in one of several ways. First, we are creating today’s bag meal to feed our neighbors at A-SPAN. There’s plenty of space for sandwich making and Lisa will give us directions in just a moment.

Feeding our neighbors through A-SPAN and AFAC is, of course, direct service. It’s crucial and it makes a difference in the lives of many hungry families and individuals. It does not, however, address hunger at a systemic level. That work of doing justice requires that we engage policy makers. Up in the chancel this morning there are a couple of tables with policy information from Bread for the World. There are postcards addressed to our local congressional delegates. Please spend some time up there and write a message to your reps encouraging to support policies that address root causes of hunger.

We feed folks. We work for justice. And we undergird it with our prayers. In the back there are colored pieces of paper. You are also invited to write your prayer requests for this morning’s prayers of the people. If you would like those prayers spoken aloud, put them in the basket next to the stack of colored paper. If you would prefer they not be spoken, simply roll the paper up and add it to the butterfly that we have been creating this summer as we take the ugliness of the cross and transform it, through our various prayers, into something bright and beautiful.

You are also invited, as you make sandwiches or writer letters, to share the peace of Christ with one another along the way, and to get some coffee and snacks, too. I encourage you to move around the space and engage each of the stations as you feel so called.

When we’ve finished bagging the sandwiches, we will close our time of worship with a prayer and a song.

So, let us continue the work of the people together.