To Be Worthy

            At various times in my life, I have had the privilege of being in conversation with people who wanted to die… to be invited into the deepest, darkest places in their souls and trusted with a revelation that was not shared with other people.    A few of these individuals were hospice patients who lived under the shadow of a terminal diagnosis.  They often felt that they were just biding their time until God had their mansion prepared for them.    They lived with the belief that they had no productive future… that they had to always cope with the frustration of the physical limitations brought on by their medical condition… or that they had to live with constant pain… or both.  The humiliation of being reduced to living in a nursing home … or with round-the-clock care at home… totally dependent upon other people for all of their needs… and in their minds, a burden to their families…and a burden to society made them long for release. 

Other individuals I spoke with battled depression… a black emptiness that enveloped them and brought with it the conviction that they were unneeded… unnecessary… and unworthy of life.    There is one telephone call, in particular, that comes to mind… the call of a young man who was once a vital, lively, engaging person who had been seriously disabled through no fault of his own… was forced to change his occupation… and who was not experiencing any success in his new career.    He called late one night, waking me out of a sound sleep to inform me that he had decided to take his own life and, though he was sitting there with a loaded and cocked handgun, he had called me to find out whether I could convince him of a reason why he should not pull the trigger.    Over the next few hours, we talked… about his life… about his faith… and about the future… and, in the end, he unloaded his gun and put it away.  He sought professional help to deal with his depression and, today, he is an active Christian, happily married, and a successful writer. 

For a moment in time, these ones had lost their way… and I was invited into the agony of the emptiness that they felt… and grateful for the common bond that held us together and helped me to find a path through the forest… to guide them out of the woods.  What was the common bond?    We were all Christians… some practicing… some not… some with a strong biblical background… and some not… some with a strong faith… and some not… but all with a belief in a higher power… a sovereign authority… and a larger plan. 

“I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”    As members of the body of Christ, we have all been called to be Christians.  And the first point that needs to be made here is simply this:  Your life is not your own.  It does not belong to you.  It was given to you by God.  It was given to you for a purpose.    When you were called, you gave your life to Christ.  Therefore, while you may have the ability to end your life, you do not, as a Christian, have the authority to do so.  We have all been called by God to be Christians.  We have a task to do.  It is God who gives us life, calls us to a purpose, and equips us for ministry… whatever that ministry may be.  It is also God who determines when our task is done… when our work is complete.  Therefore, lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.    For your life is not your own. 

Point number two is this:  All of us have gifts… gifts given by God.  As our text says, “he [meaning Christ] gave gifts to his people” … not just some of his people, but all of his people… and “the gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.”    This list brings to mind the list that also exists in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul speaks of gifts that are given.  Don’t be put off by the titles that the writer of Ephesians gives to those he names as receiving gifts.  Think of it this way:  Some of us are sent into the world to minister to others… those are the apostles… the sent ones.  Some of us are given insight into the divine will and, perhaps also, inspired speech… those are the ones called prophets.  Some of us are to share the good news of the gospel with those around us… those are the evangelists… the ones who speak good news.  Some of us are shepherds who nurture and care for the sheep… those are the ones called pastors.   Some have gifts for revealing what is relevant and sharing our history and our traditions… those are the ones called teachers… the ones who mentor and guide. These are not occupational titles assigned by human beings… they represent gifts given by God.    And these gifts manifest themselves in many different ways.  Some speak their gifts… some sing their gifts… some work with tools… some work with animals… some sit at computers… some swing hammers.  The gifts are many and varied… expressed in different ways, but despite the diversity of our gifts, we are one in Christ.  As our text says, “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

And that brings me to my third point, which is that your gifts are not your own.   They were given by God.  “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers”… not to be used for our own pleasure, but… as our text says… “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”    Your gifts… my gifts… were given by God specifically to build up the body of Christ.  So, the question of whether you are living a life worthy of your calling goes back to whether you are using your gifts to build up the body of Christ.    Are you sharing your gifts with others… and, in doing so, are you strengthening the church of Jesus Christ in this world?  Are you strengthening this particular church, right here in Stephenville?    The greatest mission and ministry we do always begins where we are.  For… as you have heard me say many times … “you go nowhere by accident.  Wherever you go, God has put you there.”  If this is where you are, then this is where you are called to begin to share your gifts with others for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. 

Finally, I would pose a question:  What is the most precious gift that you can give to someone else?    The answer… if you were listening to Nathanael read our gospel lesson for today… is that the most precious gift you can give is the bread of life, Jesus Christ.    “And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”    R.C. Sproul, in his book, The Soul’s Quest for God, says that in the lives of most people, "something is missing.  What is missing,” he says, “is a depth of spiritual communion with God… and the Christian life is often marked more by a sense of the absence of God than a vital sense of [God’s] presence."  He goes on to say, “The most important quest of our lives… is the soul’s quest for God.  [It is] the quest is for the wellspring of life, for the taste of the sweetness of honey in our mouths, and for the divine light that alone can illumine our darkest chambers."  His thoughts were echoed by Pascal who said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ."    If what these men say is true, then the most precious gift that we can give to one another is the gift of the bread of life, Jesus Christ.  For in giving this gift, we put an end to the soul’s quest and allow God to fill that God-shaped vacuum, bringing that peace which truly passes all understanding. 

Many of us here would claim that we have received that gift… that we have received Jesus Christ into our hearts and into our lives… but how many of us have given that gift to another… have shared God’s gift of life and grace with others?    Remember those who followed Jesus who were looking for signs from him.  He said to them, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal."  Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?"  And Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."  Belief in the one whom God has sent… belief in Jesus Christ as Lord… will give each of us the bread of life.    “Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

Let’s go back for a moment to the stories that I told at the beginning of my message today… the stories of those who felt unneeded… unwanted… unnecessary… and unworthy … the stories of those who had… for a moment… lost their way.    I believe that there are times in all of our lives when we wonder why we exist… when we feel unneeded… unwanted… unnecessary… and unworthy.    “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”  Our text does not say, “feel worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”  It says, “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”   We may not feel worthy of the life to which God has called us, but we are called to it anyway… called to lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called.  Our lives are not our own.  They were given to us by God.  Our gifts are not our own.  They, too, were given to us by God.  And those gifts were not given to us for our own pleasure, but for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. 

Through all of this runs the knowledge that the greatest gift we have received from God and the greatest gift that we can give to one another is the gift of the bread of life, Jesus Christ.    It is, by far, the greatest gift that God has given to us.    And it is the remembrance of that gift that we celebrate today in the feast that God has prepared for us.  It is not for those who feel worthy… in fact, it is our very sense of being unworthy that makes us worthy.    It is God who invites you to come… to taste and see that the Lord is good.  Come.  Receive the bread of life… that you might never be hungry or thirsty again.    Amen.

Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35