July 16, 2000

Toby is 6 years old and he really loves ice cream. When the meal was delivered to the table and set before him and his brother and sister he asked if he could say the grace. "Of course, sweetie," said his mother. Holding hands and bowing their heads they awaited Toby's prayer.

"God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!" Toby prayed.

Along with a pleasant laughter from the other customers who overheard the prayer, Toby and his family also heard a woman remark: "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why, I never!"

It was too much for Toby, bursting into tears he asked his Mom, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?" She reached out and pulled him to herself and assured him that he had done a terrific job and that God was certainly not mad at him. An old man, leaving the restaurant, approached the table. He winked at Toby and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer."

"Really?" Toby asked.

"Cross my heart," said the old man as he crossed his heart. Then, in a theatrical whisper the old man added (while discretely indicating the woman whose remark had so hurt Toby), "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes." And with that, the old man left.

Of course, Toby's Mom ordered ice cream for her kids at the end of the meal. Toby just stared at his as it was set in front of him. Then, to the wonder of his Mom and brother and sister, he picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of his critic. With a big smile he told her, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes, and my soul is already good." (1)

Amos was a lot older than six, he worked as a shepherd and a dresser of Sycamore trees when God invited him to a new work. Paul, a learned man, a devout Jew, was breathing murderous threats against the followers of Jesus when God caught up with him. Peter and Andrew, brothers working the family business as fishermen, were so ordinary as to be almost invisible to the people who mattered in First Century Palestine.

To this group you can add so many others: Samuel, not much older than Toby, was a servant when God invited him to work. Jeremiah, protesting his youth to God, was nonetheless chosen and invited by God to be his prophet. Ruth was already a widow, with only a fragile connection to her mother-in-law, newly widowed herself, when she was invited by God to an extraordinary new life. Elizabeth, a wife but not a mother, was thought to be well past the age of producing children when God invited her to believe. Joseph, a carpenter, a practical man, knew exactly what to do with Mary upon discovering her pregnancy, when in a dream his pragmatism was overcome with God's plea. And Mary, a teenager, betrothed as she entered adulthood, was quite invisible to the people in power, the people in the know in First Century Palestine, when God called out to her.

And now there is you and me, it our turn to take up God's invitation: men and women, young and old. We are ministers and mechanics, students and singers, teachers and telephone repairers. We are self employed and we are unemployed. We work for big companies and small. We are are dentists and physicians and nurses, we are carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. We are sales people, managers, and information specialists. We are actively working, earning our retirement and we are retired, hoping to make ends meet. We are moms and dads, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. We are single and married, looking for a companion and not looking for a companion. Like so many before us, we are almost invisible to the "people who matter," to the "people in the know" in 21st Century America.

And like our ancestors in the faith, like little Toby, we are invited to know and love God. We are invited into God's life, we are asked to join in the great adventure called the Kingdom of God, and what a difference that makes in our lives.

Also like our ancestors in the faith, like our new friend, Toby, we are not simply blessed to know and love God, we are sent by God to share that relationship, to be God's ambassadors inviting others into the same relationship with God, no matter what we may think about ourselves.

Simon and Andrew and the others, about to leave Jesus, their Teacher, and go out as missionaries, felt inadequate to the task I'm sure. They had minimal preparation, they barely understood what Jesus was talking about (in fact they never really did quite get it until Pentecost Day), they had hands calloused from working nets and boats, that is what they understood. They could sort a catch of fish quickly, but to speak and teach in the village square, in the syangogue, to expel demons and heal the sick, surely this seemed beyond them.

Toby was only 6 years old. He was reduced to tears by the unkind words of a stranger. He felt liked he had messed up, like he had made God mad. And yet he was the one God wanted to bring grace and truth into the life of the woman who had lost her way.

As we come here, as we renew our friendship with God, we are quite a group. Some of us are feeling as frisky as a puppy, and others of us just barely had the energy to get here this morning. Some of us come feeling confident of ourselves and our abilities, and others come battling a self-doubt that threatens to undo us. We come feeling special and we come feeling abandoned. Some of us come feeling on top of the world, and others come feeling burdened by the weight of the world. And the truth is, that no matter how we feel about ourselves, our God sees us in a way that is at once terrifying and exciting. He sees us—in all our strength and weakness—as his precious sons and daughters (no matter our age), he sees us as ambassadors to a world that yearns for the unconditional love of his heart. We are no better and no worse than Toby, and Peter, and Andrew, and Amos, and the countless men and women who have gone before us in faith. All of us are equally blessed by a loving God, and sent to be his ambassador.

And let us draw comfort, especially if we are terrified by the prospect of being God's ambassador, God's apostle, from the fact that we are asked to be faithful, rather than successful. Peter and Andrew and the others were sent to proclaim repentance and to work signs of God's power active in the world. Jesus never mentions a quota of new converts to be garnered by their efforts. In fact, anticipating the rejection of their message and their work, he instructs them to shake it off and move on, if it happens. He asks them to be faithful to the mission. Success is another matter all together.

Toby, as the Holy Spirit stirred in his heart, was asked to be faithful, to use his uncommon courage and grace and move from his table to the next bearing his gift and God's wisdom, and God's love, and God's invitation to new life. Whether or not he could articulate all that, I don't know, but in the mysterious realm of the Spirit, he knew what was asked of him, he knew he needed only to be faithful. Whether he or God would succeed in the woman's heart was all together another matter.

Every Sunday, and today is no exception, we ask God to send us out into the world to do the work [he has] given us to do as faithful (notice: faithful, rather than successful) witnesses to Christ our Lord. As a whole group, the strong supporting the weak, the weak holding onto the strong, the young and the old, the energetic and the tired, we all make our prayer to be sent out to do the work God has given us to do.

May God bless us with the sensitivity of the child to the movement of the Spirit in our hearts; may God bless us with the wisdom of the old man to know the heart of God and speak it with a whisper and a twinkle in our eyes; may God bless us with the love of the mother who taught her child to pray and comforted her child in distress; and finally, may God bless us with the courage of his child apostle, Toby, who brought the Good News to the adjoining table, may we, as faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ, bring the same Good News to the people around us. Amen.

(1) From an internet email, author unknown.

The Rev. Daniel Rondeau
drondeau@stmargarets.org
16 July 2000