Preaching and Teaching

Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
May 24, 2009

Text: Acts 1:1-11

I am going to blame it on my wife. Four weeks ago, Phyllis started watching American Idol. Three weeks ago, I started watching, only because I didn’t want to make Phyllis think I don’t care about things that are important to her. You know the rest. By last Wednesday night, when the winner was announced, I was glued to the tube. And frankly, I am infuriated, outraged that Adam didn’t win!

The Protestant work ethic or Protestant something makes it impossible for me simply to watch and enjoy a great but inanely frivolous program. To justify watching such a program, I have to develop a convoluted rationale as to why it isn’t inane and frivolous; why it has some broad social meaning. It actually didn’t take me too long to develop such a rationale for watching American Idol.

We all think we are talented in some way or another. Many of us think our talent isn’t recognized by the world. And indeed, for many of us, it isn’t. As a result, we relate closely to the contestants who appear on American Idol. We relate to their dreams of success, their failures to achieve success, their fierce determination to succeed, their unwillingness to accept the cynical, caustic judgements of the Simon Cowell’s of this world who tell them they are losers (and how did they become judges over us in the first place? What have they even done?). All of which, of course, creates a direct line between American Idol and Jesus.

Our passage in Acts was intended to be read this past Thursday, a day called The Ascension of our Lord. But since most Presbyterian don’t do Ascension Day, I am using it today. It tells the story of Jesus’ final words to the disciples before he returned home to God.

The Disciples thought Jesus’ resurrection had signaled the beginning of the Last Days. The Last Days were supposed to be the time when the Messiah reestablished Israel to a place of preeminence among all nations. So when Jesus told them he was returning to God, they were a bit taken aback. “What about restoring the kingdom to Israel?” they asked, both perplexed and peeved. To them, it seemed as though he was leaving before his mission was accomplished.

Jesus’ response is important for all of us. He said, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that God has set by God’s own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” In other words, “God will give you the power you need to get the job done. So get to work and don’t worry about the time line. Leave the macro stuff to me.”

Are we not like the disciples? Have we not wondered when God was going to give us what God has promised to give us? I certainly have. I am confident most of you have as well.

God has promised us peace. And yet, many of us feel inner turmoil and all of us are surrounded by a world in extreme turmoil. God has promised us forgiveness. And yet, many of us don’t experience that forgiveness. We can’t seem to get rid of our guilt. God has promised us a life filled with meaning. And yet so much of what we do feels meaning-less. God has promised each of us a calling. And yet, some of us have little or no sense of what we should be doing. “And hey, God,” we ask, “is it really so unreasonable to have a clue, a hint, an intimation about the time line?”

I cite all of these issues because they are the questions people that bring into my office. Folks believe in God. They want to serve God. But they feel like they are working in the dark. They don’t know if their lives are directed in the right direction, if their efforts are fruitful or futile. And they want to know.

What used to amaze me about these conversations is that they are oftentimes with people who have great jobs, in great organizations or agencies, doing work most people would instantly recognize as highly productive and important. It no longer amazes me. The darkness hides a multitude of things, including an awareness of the ultimate or final value of our work, even in the most prestigious of jobs.

I remember a conversation with a fellow who had a highly placed position in the Carter White House. When he asked to talk to me, I assumed the conversation was going to be about an ethical or maybe a health problem. It wasn’t. It was a much bigger problem.

George said, “John, I have the job I always dreamed of having. I have worked since I was a little kid to get this job. I am doing incredible stuff. But I’m not sure it makes any difference. In two years, we’ll probably be out of office and to what end? What purpose will be all the hours I am pouring into this work, hours I am spending away from my family?” I have had electricians and teachers, social workers and lawyers ask me the same thing.

I have only one response, Jesus’ response. “It is not for (us) to know the times or periods that God has set….”

In life, we really have only one choice. We have to do what we think is right and trust God to make it fit into God’s plan. We may or may not live long enough to find out if we were right. But we have to trust and work, work and trust.

God has told us what to do. Furthermore, God has told us that if we do it, our efforts will help God redeem the world. However, none of us will live to see exactly how or where our piece of the puzzle fits into the bigger picture.

I have to say, there is a big part of me that really wishes Dick Cheney would focus on completing his memoirs. When he questions everyone and anyone who challenges the torture strategy of the Bush administration by calling such questions “phony moralism,” it is just plain insulting. The questions being asked today are precisely the questions that need to be asked. In fact, they should have been asked over the past eight years. Thank God they are being asked this year.

However, on the other hand, I am really glad Mr. Cheney is sticking to his position. This is an issue that needs to be resolved. The debate between President Obama and former Vice President Cheney is over a classic moral choice. Their respective positions have to do with two distinctly different ways of working in the dark.

I would reduce the two positions to this. We can do whatever it takes/whatever is necessary to accomplish whatever it is we seek. Or, we can work within some kind of societally agreed upon moral/ethical framework to accomplish our goals.

Fact of the matter is, very often, we live and work in the dark. In the case of the torture debate, working in the darkness is more frightening because there are some dangerous people out there in the shadows. They want to harm, even kill us. So we have to defend ourselves.

However, as we work in the dark, Jesus teaches us an absolutely essential truth: the manner in which we defend ourselves will determine whether there is anything worth defending left. The manner in which we work determines what we produce. The ends do not justify the means because the means can predestine certain ends.

And God has been perfectly clear about how we do our work in the dark. Jesus didn’t lift the darkness. He brought a light into the darkness and told us how to maneuver in the darkness.

Criticizing waterboarding, seeking to find different ways to gather intelligence is not “phony moralizing.” It is moral thinking. In a world of grays, it refuses to choose a white or black solution. Instead, moral reasoning seeks to live in ways consistent with the way all the world’s major religions have taught us God wants us to live.

It doesn’t even matter that some of the tactics authorized by the Bush administration were less effective than more humane methods of interrogation. For that applies the wrong standard. God doesn’t ask us to what is effective. God asks us to do what is morally sound.

In like manner, in our homes and workplaces, the criteria for success isn’t what works or whether or not something will hold up in a court of law. The criteria are God’s teachings. As Christians, we are concerned with whether or not our actions are consistent with God’s law.

When we spend less time with our loves ones than we can or cut ethical corners in the workplace, no one may ever know. After all, we are working in the dark. The darkness covers a multitude of sins. But God will know.

Just as importantly, we know. We know what we are doing. There is nothing more corrosive to the human soul than to engage knowingly in immoral behavior. We can justify it, rationalize it, ignore it. But like a cancer at work in our body, it destroys us, one moral cell at a time.

The last part of the Acts chapter is one of my favorites. If I say that about a lot of different passages, it is because I am an unabashed fan of Scripture. So I have a lot of favorite parts. Granted, this particular story goes a little too far for us. It gets a bit too supernatural for our overly educated minds. But it is great.

Jesus is lifted up and disappears into the heavens. Hey, he had to get out of here somehow. It is the next part I love. The apostles are standing looking into the heavens. A couple of those guys in white robes pop up again and say, “Why are you staring into the heavens?” They didn’t have to say the rest, “Why don’t you get to work?”

For two thousand years, too many Christians have stood and stared into the heavens, amazed at what God has done in Jesus, totally missing what God wants to do through us. We have prayed and lit incense, built huge cathedrals and monasteries. We have written gorgeous music and magnificent sermons. All of this is well and good.

But ultimately God does not want us staring into the heavens. God wants us working the darkness, continuing the work Abraham and Sarah began, Miriam, Mary and Jesus continued—moving to strange lands and transforming them into Promised Lands, finding our way out of deserts where each way seems the same as the other way, working through the consequences of our sinfulness, saying, “I will your command, God” when the easy thing to say it “Heil Hitler.”

On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember the millions of people who have laid down their lives so we can enjoy the freedoms and life we enjoy. They ask no thanks. But thank them we must.

One of the things the military does well is train people, create discipline so they will follow orders in the midst of absolute insanity. When the chain of command evaporates and friends are dying beside them, enemies are closing in on them, they are hungry, tired, wanting only to go home to mom, the soldier is asked, no, expected to do what the soldier is trained to do. It is the only way to achieve victory.

So it is with God. God’s chain of command breaks down all the time. Actually, it broke down way back there in the Garden of Eden. And when the chain of command breaks down, every person has to do what they know they are supposed to do.

We will always wonder whether we are doing the right thing. We will wonder if what we are doing is meaningful or meaningless. We will wonder if we should be doing something else.

But in the darkness, we must continue to do God’s work. We have to find a way, God’s Way.

Let us pray: Gracious God, create within our hearts a profound trust in your Providence. As you guide the world to its appointed end, may we do our part in helping you to get it there. All this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
May 17, 2009

Text: Acts 10:44-48

Over the past two thousand years, the church has had some battles royale over theological issues. However, the longest, most intense and still ongoing the fight within the church relates to who should be part of our family of faith.

It was the first major, divisive battle in the church. In my mind, it remains the most important. It all started with a controversy about Gentiles.

Following Jesus’ death, the church was, in effect, a small sect within Judaism. The first century, Palestinian Jewish Christians believed everything their fellow Jews believed with one notable exception. They believed the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.

However, apart from that major difference of opinion, they continued to follow the rules and practice the rituals of first century Judaism. The earliest Christians followed the same dietary laws their Jewish parents followed, sang the psalms of their ancestors and, here is the rub, continued to view Gentiles with suspicion, at best, with animosity at worst.

So when Paul decided that he was called to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles, it created a firestorm of protest within the Jerusalem church. “Why would anyone want to share such Good News with such a sinful people?” most questioned. To resolve the dispute, the first church council was held in Jerusalem. James led the “keep the Gentiles out” crowd. On the other side, Paul advocated for expanding the mission of the church to the Gentiles. Peter seems to have been a mediator of sorts.

After much debate, they compromised. It was agreed that Paul could carry his ministry to the Gentiles. But the Jerusalem church would have nothing to do with Paul’s ministry or the Gentiles. In a wise pastoral and political move, Paul decided to bring regular offerings from the new, more affluent Gentile Christians to the poorer church in Jerusalem.

Had Paul not been successful in taking the Gospel to the Gentile world, the church, most likely, would have died as a small, dissident movement within first century Judaism. For the future of the church lay with the millions and millions of people living around the Mediterranean, not in Jerusalem which the Romans would destroy in 70 A.D. Following the Council, first in Jerusalem thousands, then millions of Gentiles joined small house churches from Europe to Ethiopia. The success of Paul and other evangelists was such that it was not long before the major bishops of the church were in Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, not Jerusalem.

In our lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, we find Peter engaging in a preaching ministry aimed at the many Jews throughout Asia Minor (By the first century, more Jews lived outside of Israel than in it). Peter traveled with what Acts calls “circumcised believers.” In other words, Jews who converted to Christianity.

As Peter preached, Gentiles joined his Jewish listeners. The Holy Spirit came upon them all and the Gentiles began to speak in tongues. Peter responded by saying to his Jewish Christian colleagues, “Can we withhold baptism from Gentiles who are obviously experiencing the Holy Spirit?” He answered his own question by baptizing them.

Peter’s action was one of considerable political courage. He knew that some of his colleagues would surely return to Jerusalem and tell the mother church that he had gone over to Paul’s side on the Gentile issue. As a result, he may well have faced discipline or even expulsion from the church.

The inclusionary vision of Paul and Peter has been taken up by courageous Christians of every generation. There are always Christians who, like Paul, feel we should include someone in the church who is currently being excluded. There are always Christians, like the church in Jerusalem, who prefer to keep the church a pretty exclusive club.

In 1964 and still in high school, I watched with fascination and pride as my father used his considerable clout in the Presbyterian denomination to help elect Rev. Edler Hawkins, a African American pastor from the Bronx, as the African-American first moderator of the General Assembly. It was a turning point in Presbyterian history because there were many who didn’t want African-Americans in the church, even more who didn’t want to include them in top church leadership positions. The victory signaled that Presbyterians would walk with Dr. King and the civil rights movement into a more inclusive future.

Other Presbyterians fought for many generations to establish the rights of women to serve as elders and clergy. The battle over the ordination of women was a bitter, divisive fight still going on when I entered the ministry in 1974. When I came to this Presbytery in 1976, we had a number of large churches, including Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, leave the denomination because they rejected the requirement that every Session have women elders on their Session.

Today, the battle is over LGBT folks. Some view the LGBT community today as Gentiles were viewed in the first century—as unclean, sinners, dangerous to be in their presence. Gratefully, a tidal wave of acceptance of the LGBT community is sweeping over this country and the church. We are getting very close to the day when LGBT members can be ordained in every congregation as they are currently ordained in this congregation.

However, despite our successes in the past and the victory we are on the verge of accomplishing today, as we sit here, there are groups of people being excluded from the church of which most of us are unaware. For one ramification of our sinfulness is that we oftentimes don’t even realize we are sinning by excluding. I’m not sure who this group is. But I guarantee there are other groups of people currently being excluded from the church who, in the future, will be included after much debate and division.

They will be included because, if there is any clear and certain movement of the Holy Spirit across time, it is the ongoing, unstoppable work of God to recognize the intrinsic worth of every human being. On the last day, there will be no “them” and “us,” no clean and unclean. We will all view one another as the holy children of God we are.

However, in a place like Western, the easy thing is to keep our work toward inclusion on a national or ecclesiastical level. We are progressive Presbyterians committed to inclusion. No one at Western is going to argue against the need to be inclusive. So it is a pretty safe topic.

The more challenging route is to go where I am going now. Who are our friends? How inclusive is that group? Whom do we invite over to our homes for dinner? How diverse is that group? Are we willing to take some risks at work to advocate the inclusion of people not currently being employed in our workplace?

This is where the rubber hits the road. Forcing inclusion from the top down is the classic progressive approach to creating an inclusive society. Frankly, it requires very little risk or change for us personally.

But when we work the inclusion issue from the bottom-up, the discussion changes. The forces of resistance have no political label or persuasion. They are everyone. They are usually us.

Many people in the north were for integration of schools until their northern schools were forced to integrate as well. Many Presbyterians voted to ordain women as pastors decades ago but still won’t call them to their congregations as heads of staff. The truth of inclusion is only clear when viewed from the bottom up, when it is evaluated with the criteria of what we are doing in our personal lives.

The radically inclusionary nature of Jesus’ work helped get him killed. His ministry was controversial for a lot of reasons. But at its core, it was controversial, in my opinion, because he challenged the walls that every generation builds around God’s love, because he challenged the definition of who is good and who isn’t by asserting that everyone is good. Jesus preached that God loves everyone, sinners and saints, Samaritans and Jews, women and men. As a result, he said, everyone is in, no one is out.

More threatening, he lived his message. He refused to associate with people based on their class, culture, religion or nationality. He dealt with people as children of God. His closest friends and colleagues included a tax collector, a woman about whom there was malicious gossip, a political zealot, a couple of lowly fisherman, a powerful Pharisee. He ate with sinners and religious leaders, with women and men. He healed a Roman centurion’s child and embraced a leper.

Using Jesus as our standard, how do we match up? Do our friends and dinner guests look like us, think like us, have similar backgrounds and education to us? If the answer is “yes,” I’m not sure it is going to invoke God’s anger. But I know it causes God great sadness.

God created us different because difference enriches life. What if there were only azaleas? Spring would be beautiful; but not as beautiful as it is with tulips, cherry blossoms, dogwoods, rhododendrums, and so many more plants.

What if the only type of sausage was bratwurst? Well, actually, that wouldn’t be so bad.

What if the only culture was European? Now that would be really boring.

I don’t think God created Eve because Adam needed a helper. I think God created Adam and Eve to place difference at the center of the human experience.

When we are talking about making our society inclusionary through public policy, we insist on the importance of intentionality. We argue, “If we don’t create laws that force people to be inclusionary, they won’t be inclusionary.” Too often, this is true.

The same is true on a personal level. If we don’t work intentionally to diversify our personal lives, they aren’t going to be very diverse and inclusive.

When Michelle Obama visited here to serve a meal at Miriam’s Kitchen, I was fascinated to learn that the following Friday she had invited the kids of her Secret Service detail to an overnighter with her kids at the White House. Now think about that. She didn’t invite a bunch of Senators’ kids over to be with her kids. She invited the kids of the Secret Service detail.

This is how we build an inclusionary life for ourselves and our kids. We don’t make sure our kids are always with kids who are in the same social strata. We make sure our kids meet and learn to appreciate children from every social strata.

Surely, it isn’t always easy. When we finished building our house in Mexico, we had a fiesta to which we invited friends, all the workers who built the house as well as their families and our neighbors, many of whom are pretty poor. Our friends came. But the workers and neighbors didn’t. And the ones who did come wouldn’t sit in the living room. They stayed outside.

For the past ten years, we have continued to invite neighbors to our house. But we also stop and talk to them at their homes and on the street. As a result, we have become friends. But it has been ten years. Such is the challenge of some people getting used to being welcomed and included.

Jesus attempted to break down the walls that artificially divide us—rich from poor, sinner from saint, believer from nonbelieiver. Jesus calls on us to break down these walls. It won’t happen the first time we try; maybe not the second or third time. But if we persist, the walls separating, artificially dividing and subdividing the children of God will come tumbling down. In their place will be the wide-open spaces of genuine friendship.

In this town, it is also important that our friends not all be like-minded. Too many liberals have almost all liberal friends. Too many conservatives have almost all conservative friends. It is a huge problem.

In more than three decades in this town, I have been amazed at how I actually have to defend my deep, personal friendships with some conservatives. I have been amazed at the way I have to defend, in the church, my friendships with conservatives and evangelicals. Am I supposed to dislike or not associate with someone just because I disagree with them? It doesn’t make sense to me. More important, it is not Christ-like.

I understand why most conservatives don’t want to join Western church. They would have to support financially progressive things they don’t support. They would have to listen to Carol and me preach a progressive message week after week. For the same reasons, when I retire, I won’t be joining a conservative congregation. But I do want to be part of a denomination where there are lots of people who self-identify as moderates or conservatives. And I want to be friends with them—argue with and learn from them.

I don’t want to be part of a denomination or world where everyone is progressive. First, it would be boring. Second, it would in no way reflect the diverse group around Jesus. I just know Jesus and his colleagues had heated debates about the nature of God, how to best challenge the Roman occupation, how one should relate to Samaritans.

In this 21^st century, I think the real work on the issue of inclusion is in our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces. Until our friendships reflect some of the diversity of this metro region, we will not be where God wants us to be. Thanks be to God, the younger generations are way ahead of people over 40 on having diverse friendships and families. But all of us have so much further to go if we are going to be a family of God where no one is left behind, no one is excluded.

Let us pray: Gracious God, what an amazing world you have created. Why are we content to savor such a small slice of it? Help us to continue welcoming ever more people into the family of faith called the church. And may we welcome an ever more diverse group of people into our homes and lives. All this we pray in the name of One who shows us the Way, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

a sermon by John W. Wimberly, Jr.
Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
May 3, 2009

Text: John 10:11-18

When I did my MBA program, one of the best classes was on leadership. The business community has thought long and hard about what it takes to be a successful leader. As you might expect, there are many different models, each one adding its own unique flavor to the leadership stew.

As we studied and discussed leadership, my joy was mixed with irritation because never once in seminary did the subject of leadership arise. We were never told there is a large body of literature about leadership. Worse, we didn’t even study Jesus explicitly as a leader even though he is the best leadership model in history.

In John’s Gospel this morning, we hear Jesus describe the primary trait of his leadership style. A faithful leader feels a personal, sacrificial responsibility to those she or he leads. To make his point, Jesus used the image of a shepherd. When a wolf appears, he said, some leaders think about their own welfare and protect their own lives. In contrast, other leaders willingly put their lives on the line for their followers.

A week or so ago in my gym, we were discussing the news that top Chrysler managers turned down some government assistance because the aid came with salary caps for the management. I said to my gym mates, “These guys just don’t get it. They don’t realize how bad this looks.” A couple of people, both business people, responded immediately, “They get it John. And they want to get as much of it as they can. They realize the company is going down and they want to get as much money for themselves as possible.” Their comments were a bit cynical and I hope they are wrong. But certainly, they make a powerful point.

In contrast to some of the stories we have been reading over the past year about leaders in many different professions enriching themselves at the expense of others, there are many more leaders across the country sacrificing whatever they have to sacrifice to protect their workers, companies and organizations. These are the leaders Jesus described; leaders who serve rather than exploit those around them; who stay and protect the flock rather than cutting and running. They are servant leaders.

It was the business community, not the church, that popularized the servant leadership model revealed in Jesus’ life. Promoted by Robert Greenleaf beginning in 1970, the servant leadership model celebrates the leader who sees her or himself first as a servant, not as a ruler. Greenleaf wrote, “(Servant leadership) manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

Conventional wisdom says we should employ the best and brightest in leadership positions. But they may not be the best leaders. Robert McNamara was a brilliant man but a dismal failure as Secretary of Defense, leading us ever-deeper into the quagmire Vietnam was. Carly Fiorina is brilliant, strong leader. However, her time as CEO of Hewlett-Packard was divisive and troubled.

So getting the smartest person for the job is not always getting the best person for the leadership job. Indeed, Jesus didn’t walk around Israel looking for the best and the brightest leaders. He sought people willing to follow him as he served the world. Jesus knew that being a good follower is a prerequisite to being a good leader. If we can’t subjugate our own needs to become followers, we are not going to subjugate our needs as leaders.

The future of the church, nation and world depends on our ability to put servant-leaders in leadership positions. It depends on each of us becoming servant-leaders in our communities, workplaces and church. The emphasis has to be not on how much a leader’s power or wealth grows. The test is how those served by the leader grow. It isn’t how the leader’s resume sparkles. It is how the lives of those served begin to blossom.

Greenleaf also realized that servant leader communities are becoming more and more important in our society. He wrote, “Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions…. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”

During Ann Elise’s confirmation process, we had conversations about the bible, church history, spiritual growth and her statement of faith. However, frankly, her confirmation process began long ago and has involved something far more important than any piece of information about theology, church history or polity. Baptized here at Western, Ann Elise has been a lifelong member of this community that is dedicated to service, the kind of servant-leader community Greenleaf advocated.

As this congregation has evolved over the years, we have become a servant leader community not so much because of what we do as an institution. Rather, our impact has increasingly come through what you, the members of this congregation, do. So many of you are servant leaders in the community.

You have chosen to make less money in order to serve the public. You have dedicated your lives to growing the arts, protecting the environment, educating young people, representing people who otherwise would have no legal representation, working in the government as civil servants, advocating child welfare, working on farm policy, creating public policy on Capitol Hill. The list goes on.

In some congregations, you have to use the mission or program budget to judge whether or not the church is a servant community. Here at Western, we can use people’s career choices to reveal our values. The results would bring a smile to John Calvin’s face who said Christians working faithfully in the community is where our work coincides with God’s redemptive work.

As a result of who we are and what we do at work Monday through Saturday, a key part of Western’s work is nurturing the spiritual lives of our members who are servant leaders in the community. Greenleaf asked whether members of a community or organization grow as a result of their participation in the community or organization. From where I sit, the answer at Western is “yes.” Women and men who are already servant leaders come here to be spiritually nurtured and sustained—to become healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous. My prayer is that the same will be true for Ann Elise.

If our nation is to pull out of this economic crisis, we need more servant leaders and more places where servant leaders are educated and nurtured. We need more young people like Ann Elise who are willing to think through life’s decisions with the help of the Holy Spirit and a community of believers. We need more Christians who see themselves as servant leaders—business people who serve their customers and employees, politicians who serve their constituents, clergy who serve their congregations, teachers who serve their students, physicians who serve their patients.

Few of us will be asked to lay down our lives for others. But Jesus does ask us to dedicate our lives to others, serving others as though the future depends on it. Because, in fact, the future does depend on it!

Let us pray: Gracious God, we feel honored to serve you and our neighbors. Bless us with wisdom and strength as we do so. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.