Miracles in disguise Reinbeck UMC November 15, 2015

Miracles in disguise

Reinbeck UMC

November 15, 2015

Do you think miracles happen today? I mean do you really think that God works miracles in our world today, our community, our church, and our lives? I do, and I think that each of you is one of God’s greatest miracles in disguise.

•           Think back to the Old Testament reading. When the Israelites needed a miracle to fight Goliath, did God use the biggest strongest soldier the Israelites had? Actually yes, but he disguised him as a pipsqueak of the little boy. David was a miracle in disguise.

•           Think back to the reading from Philippians. When God needed a miracle someone to take this new Gospel of Christ to faraway places, did he use one of his most faithful followers? Actually yes, but he disguised him as a Pharisee of Pharisees and persecutor of Christians. Saul soon became Paul and was a miracle in disguise.

 When God needs a miracle in Reinbeck Iowa, where do you suppose he turns? Not David, or Paul. God relies on you. YOU are God’s miracle in disguise.

The answer to the opening question, then, is “Absolutely!” Absolutely miracles happen today and they happen here. Miracles happen every day, when God to works in and through people like us.

 We are all just ordinary people. None of us is a giant slayer. None of us is a Spiritual powerhouse. Yet, when God has something to do in this world, God depends on us, God’s miracles in disguise.

•           Whether it is simple and ordinary like teaching a child to sing their very first Christmas song or giving a neighbor a ride to the doctor;

•           or quite extraordinary like introducing a new person to Christ, seeing a broken community come together to celebrate of what is GR8, or sending kindles and toilets to a seminary in Nigeria God depends on us, God’s miracles in disguise.

When God has something to do in this world, he turns to people like us… because we really are miracles in disguise.

You might think you’re not qualified because you haven’t been to seminary… neither had Jesus, or Paul, or mother Theresa. In fact, sometimes the miracle of seminary is that anyone believes in miracles when they graduate. History has forgotten the names of the 60 or so High priests of the Bible, but everyone knows the ordinary people like Elisha, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or Paul. None of them were pastors. Yet, they were all miracles in disguise.

You might think you are too young. But God used David (who might have been 12), and Mary (who might have been all of 14) to be miracles in the disguise of youth.

You might think you are too old. But God used Abraham who as 99 when Isaac was born, and Anna who was 83 when Jesus was born to be miracles in the disguise of old age.

You think you have more important things to do? God used the great pharaoh of Egypt as a miracle in disguise to let the Israelites free.

You think you are too weak? God used underdogs like Joseph who was bullied by his brothers; Amos, a simple farmer from Tekoah; and a social outcast named John the Baptist. They are miracles in the disguise of underdogs.

God used Israelites like Moses and Peter, and foreigners like Ruth and Simon of Cyrene as miracles in disguise.

God used men. God uses women.

God choose the educated and the uneducated.

God used professional religious types, faithful ordinary folk, religious seekers, and even priests of the idol Baal, to be his miracles in disguise.

God used white-collar workers like Nicodemus, and blue-collar workers like the fisherman Peter to be his miracles in disguise.

God used single mothers like Mary, widows like Ruth, handicapped persons, persons of all colors and races and nationalities, people who were insiders and people were outsiders. God used all these kinds of people to do his work in the Bible. Each and every one of them was a miracle in disguise.

Actually, we are three times a miracle.

•           The first miracle is creation, is that God even desired to make us in God’s image and breathe into us the breath of life.

•           The second miracle is salvation, is that God loved us enough to suffer and die that we might be called “children of God.”

•           And the third is that God always has, and still does do his best work through ordinary people like you and me. Actually sometimes, it seems like the more ordinary the better.

It is that third miracle I want to talk about today “God works primarily through ordinary people like us.”

 First, we have to agree that God is present and active in the world.

Can we agree on that?

 Second we have to ask where is God active?… where is God at work?… what is God’s modus operandi?

 By far, the most common way God works is in ordinary people like you and me.

•           Let me be clear… I am not saying that this is the only way God works, it isn’t. Look at the beauty of the symphony of nature. That is God’s work and God’s alone.

•           I am also not saying that God needs us. No, God can do anything God chooses to do. God works in people because that is what God chooses to do. God doesn’t need us, but he wants us to be his hands and his feet in this world over which he has given us dominion.

It is God’s plan that he would bring the world into line with his great vision we call the kingdom of God, by using the efforts of ordinary people like you and me.

•           The greatest example is Jesus himself. God cold have come to save us with a hurricane, or a voice from on high, or alien visitation. But God chose an ordinary girl, in an ordinary place, to be the mother of an ordinary baby, in whom God was incarnate, and saved the world by the very human act of suffering and dying on a cross.

•           After his resurrection and ascension Jesus left us to visit the sick

•           Jesus told us to clothe the naked

•           Jesus told us to go into all the world, and preach, and baptize.

•           Jesus told us to love, and forgive, and teach.

•           In fact, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Jesus said, “You will do even greater things than these.” Jesus Clearly left his followers to faithfully carry on his work and continue the drive toward the Kingdom of God.

If, then, we can agree that

1.         God is present and active in the world.

2.         And chooses to be active in ordinary people, we finally have to ask,

3.           How is that possible? We are after all, just ordinary people. Listen to this

 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the

   Holy Spirit. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.” 

“He lives with you and will be in you.” You have the Holy Spirit inside of you. You look like an ordinary person. The truth is that you are a Spirit-filled person. You are a God-filled person. You are ordinary on the outside, but just like an Oreo-, the really good stuff is on the inside. The really amazing stuff lives within you. That is the living active Spirit of God. You are a Spiritual superhero.

•           So when you act, it is not you alone, but God who is at work in you and through you.

•           When you pray it is the Holy Spirit in you that gives words to your prayers that are too deep for words.

•           When you love someone it is not you alone, but the Holy Spirit within you that loves.

•           When you serve, it is not just you it is the Holy Spirit in side of you working through you.

•           When you share your faith, it is not just your words, but the Holy Spirit inside of you that gives life to your words and plants them in your friends’ heart.

•           When you teach,

•           or lead,

•           or take food to someone,

•           or give so a child has a gift on Christmas,

•           or when you are liturgist,

•           or have kings kids,

•           or greet,

•           or usher,

•           or work technology,

•           or visit someone at Parkview,

•           or comfort a child,

•           or help an elderly person,

•           or serve dinner to the school staff,

•           or pack love boxes,

•           or pray for someone,

•           or rake leaves for someone,

•           Or a thousand other things;…whether you realize it or not… the Spirit of God is within you working in you and through you.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in you is in kind of like a force multiplier… it is not just you alone who serve, but God working through you. In THE ALPHABET OF GRACE Frederick Buechner writes, “A miracle is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A miracle is when one plus one equals a thousand.”  That makes the Spirit working through you a miracle, and that makes you a miracle in disguise.

 So that brings us to “by what means does Holy Spirit work through us?” Spiritual Gifts.   This all happens by our Spiritual Gifts.

•           Volumes have been written on Spiritual Gifts.

•           Hours of sermons have been preached on Spiritual Gifts.

•           People even argue over how many Spiritual Gifts there really are.

•           Let me tell you Gifts of the Spirit are not mystery. Very simply the Holy Spirit in you makes you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do…. Hear that …  a Spiritual gift is the Holy Spirit in you, making you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do.

I know there are lists in the Bible. I know that some say those are the only gifts there are. I think that’s crazy. God made us each completely unique and the Holy Spirit works in each of us in a completely and entirely unique way.

That is what Paul is saying in I Corinthian 12 when he talks about the body or Christ he says, “There are different Spiritual Gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, and yet the same Lord is served. There are different types of work to do, but the same God produces every gift in every person”

He goes on “The evidence of the Spirit’s presence is given to each person for the common good of everyone. 8The Spirit gives one person the

•           ability to speak with wisdom. The same Spirit gives another person the

•           ability to speak with knowledge. To another person the same Spirit gives

•           courageous faith. To another person the same Spirit gives the

•           ability to heal. Another can

•           work miracles. Another can

•           speak what God has revealed. Another can

•           tell the difference between Spirits. Another can

•           speak in different kinds of languages. Another can

•           interpret languages.”

I might add,

•           another understands technology,

•           another plays the piano,

•           another loves being a hostess,

•           another is skilled at fixing things

•           another loves working with children

•           another is gifted with numbers

We could go on and on. Paul concludes, “There is only one Spirit who does all these things by giving what God wants to give to each person.” Hear that? “giving what God wants to give to each person.” Are we going to limit God to 9, or 25, or 37 gifts? Heavens no! Each and every person has a unique cluster of Spiritual Gifts (a unique set of ways the Spirit works in them) _ that is more unique than their DNA. I say MORE unique because identical twins have the same DNA, and yet God can give them completely different Spiritual gift-sets.

The one thing that is the same for everyone is that we are expected us use them.  If you agree that

1.         God is present and works in this world,

2.         through ordinary people who are,

3.         by the indwelling of the  Holy Spirit,

4.         given spiritual gifts. Then you have to admit that to not use them would flat out be a sin. Leaving our Spiritual Gifts wrapped up in the pretty paper is being disobedient and is therefore a sin. Let me tell you, there are no such Spiritual Gifts as

•           pew warming or

•           sermon criticizing or

•           music listening’!!!! 

•           Showing up on Sunday is not a Spiritual gift and

•           neither is being a member of a church.

Our Spiritual Gifts are not for us, our comfort, or our convenience. They are to be used to get God’s work done in the world.

Every morning a certain Christian man prayed: "Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is."

One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend. The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get very nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep. He then cried out with a loud voice, "I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?" He turned to the Christian and pleaded, "Can you show me how to be saved?" The Christian man immediately bowed his head and prayed, … "Lord, is this a sign?"

If you’re waiting for a sign…  Don’t wait any longer because the sign is here.