Weekly Sermon: You Belong - 07-27-25

The Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.

So Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.

So he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, may your name be revered as holy.

May your kingdom come. Give us each daily bread and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.

And he said to them, suppose one of you has a friend and you go to him at midnight

and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine

has arrived and I have nothing to set before him.

Any answers from within do not bother

me the door has already been locked and my

children are with me in bed I cannot get

up and give you anything I tell you even

though he will not get up and give him anything out

of friendship at least because of his persistence he

will get up and give him whatever he needs so I

say to you ask and it will be given to

you search and you will find knock and

the door will be opened for you for everyone who receives

and everyone who searches finds and for

everyone who knocks the door will be opened is there

anyone among you who if your child

asked for a fish you would give him a snake instead of a fish or if a child

asked for an egg you would give a scorpion if you then who are evil know how

to give good gifts to your children How much more will the Heavenly Father give

to the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. You may be seated.

All right.

So today I'm preaching from the Corinthians passage that Joy read earlier.

So i want to start off with saying if your car ever breaks down and you're wondering

who you can call to help get it running again i'm going to save you a little

bit of trouble don't call me.

Okay now it's not that i don't want to help you i really

do i'm i would absolutely

give you a ride if i were nearby and you

were standing stranded on the side of the road and i can tell you if something's

on fire i can even let you know your tire's flat and on a good day i can help

you fix that flat but when it comes to actually fixing a car i'm useless i'm

basically a fly on a wall with uninformed opinions,

This fact became painfully obvious to me about 10 years ago when my friends

and I were sitting around one of our day, around one day, bored out of our minds.

And one of my friends perks up and says, hey, I just bought a 1976 Chevy S S

10 and I still don't know what that is.

And but then he goes, you guys want to help me work on it? And I said, sure, whatever.

Because I was imagining we would have an evening and tinkering around on his

new truck and then maybe grabbing tacos afterwards.

What I didn't realize was that my dear, now I know evil friend,

didn't want to just work on the car.

He wanted to take it apart.

Entirely down to the tiniest bolts and screws.

Why, you ask? I don't know why. Still to this day, it might have been some kind

of mechanical midlife crisis at 25. I don't know.

But what I thought would be a two-hour weekend project turned into a three-month

saga with months of rust, grease, and me realizing just how little I know about cars.

And the deeper we got into the project, the more it became clear.

Well, each of my friends had real skills for this

job and one even went to some fancy mechanic school

i was more like a gold confused golden retriever

wandering around the auto shop i'd buzz around trying to be helpful handing

somebody a tool they didn't need and then asking is that bad whenever something

looked like it was going wrong but working on that car with them was still better

than staying at home watching reruns of how I met your mother.

So I kept showing up and I kept looking for some way to be useful in this project.

And the deeper we got into it, it became clear that I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

And I began to ask myself that if I even belonged in that room with my friends.

And it's easy to get into this kind of mindset, not just with cars or tools

or technical knowledge, but in all sorts of areas of our lives.

It's a quiet voice that creeps in and whispers, you don't have anything to offer.

You may look around the room, whether it's at work, at school,

in your family, and even here at church, and begin to believe that you don't have anything to offer.

The others are more qualified, more confident, and more gifted.

You may hear the voice in your head telling you that you're

too young to be taken seriously or too old

to be useful anymore that you don't have

the right training the right background or the

right words to say and you may compare yourself

like i did without even realizing it you may

see somebody who sings effortlessly who speaks

eloquently and who seems to know exactly what

to do and when to do it and in

contrast you may feel small unimportant and

easily overlooked you may begin to think of yourself as somebody on the sidelines

watching rather than participating supporting rather than belonging and you

write yourself out of the story like i did with the truck before anyone else

has a chance to write you in,

and you decide that since you're not the one leading the prayer your voice doesn't

matter since you're not the pastor your voice as your role in the church must

be minimal and since you can't carry a tune or don't understand technology there

must not be a space for you to contribute.

And when this story takes root it may begin to reshape how you see yourself

not just in this community but in every part of your life you may begin to wonder whether you.

Who you are really matters at all feeling invisible replaceable and insufficient

and that kind of doubt if left unchecked and settle in deep not because someone

else told you that you don't belong but because you have started to believe it yourself.

And this struggle is an ancient one, and is one we hear in today's scripture in Corinthians.

The city of Corinth is a diverse, bustling, and multicultural hub.

It was trying to define itself, a city that is caught between local identity

and the dominant culture of the Roman Empire.

As a port city, Corinth saw people coming and going constantly,

bringing with them new ideas, religions, customs, and value.

On the surface that it

may seem that this may allow for free expression so long

as it didn't threaten the status quo but beneath

that surface was a deep tension with questions

about whose voice mattered which values would prevail and who got to find defined

belonging and that tension didn't stay outside the church in Corinth it found

its way in and so the church in Corinth was just as diverse as a city.

People from different backgrounds with different stories and different spiritual experiences.

And they're all trying to follow Jesus together.

And it wasn't just cultural differences that caused strain. It was comparison,

competition, and division.

Members of the community had been given different spiritual gifts.

We see in a passage of teaching, of prophecy, of healing, and speaking in tongues.

But rather than celebrating the diversity of

their gifts they began to rank it some flaunted their gifts others stayed quiet

unsure if they belonged at all and the church began to mirror the empire outside

the stores a place where status determined worth where only certain voices mattered

where the loudest gifts were seen as the holiest.

And Paul steps into that moment with a clear word, which essentially says that

this is not the way of the Spirit.

Paul says that there is one Spirit behind all these different gifts,

and that the Spirit does not create hierarchies.

The Spirit doesn't rank and doesn't compare, but the Spirit gives freely,

not to lift up the individual, but to build up the whole.

In this scripture paul declares that

every gift is needed every voice matters

every part is vital and no

one is lesser because their gift is quieter less visible

or they are different and then

paul does something subtle but powerful he takes

each individual gift and gives it a purpose

beyond the individual the gifts are not just

personal achievements or badges a spiritual

status they are supposed to be directed outward

as it says in verse 7 as paul

writes to each is given the manifest manifestation

of the spirit for the common good and that

phrase common good was not a throwaway line and because

in paul's day it carried political weight in the

roman world the common good referred to the public works

and civic contributions that upheld the

empire's ideals so when paul uses

it here he's doing something intentionally provocative he's

redirecting their imagination he's inviting them

into a new kind of politics a spirit-led community where gifts are not ranked

but they are shared where diversity is not tolerated but it is celebrated where

every gift is not meant to glorify the individual but to help the whole in the.

Absence of a particular gift is not meant to diminish anyone's worth.

But an opportunity to find the gift that the Spirit has laid upon them.

So Paul calls the church in unity to be a community that lifts one another up

and goes forth together to carry out the work Christ has called them to do.

And the same call the Spirit placed on the church in Corinth is the call the

Spirit places on the church today.

To see and value the gifts of every single person

to recognize the gifts within ourselves and offering them in service to christ's

mission each gift no matter how seemingly small or hidden they might seem is

part of how the church is equipped to carry out god's work in the world,

i think about that time years ago when i was working on that truck with my friends

And while I felt pretty useless at first, he mostly stood back.

There was one day where I'm watching them struggle with a bolt that wouldn't budge.

And these guys, they were pulling and straining and nothing was working.

So I walked over, called them weaklings, and I grabbed the wrench.

And with one strong push, I popped that bolt open.

And just like that, I realized I had something to offer in that moment.

Because I was a muscle of that group. And from then on, whenever something heavy

needed lifting or a stubborn part needed breaking loose, I was their go-to.

I may not have the technical know-how, but I brought something vital that helped move the work forward.

And we as a church have a chance to learn that same lesson together.

As we have come to the close of this sabbatical season, we have an opportunity

to reflect as a community.

Not just on what we have done but on what we have discovered about ourselves as a church.

And there were some concerns at the beginning of summer as some folks may have

wondered if we can manage without our pastor while others figured we'll survive

the three months but weren't sure we'd make it to the finish line without limping

across but we here we are and we're a week away And not only are we standing,

but we're standing strong.

We completed projects this summer.

Vacation Bible School was a huge success. And our outreach ministries continue to thrive.

And we are in the middle of planning some wonderful things in the fall,

like blessing of the packpacks and the fall festival.

And all this has happened not because of anything that I've done.

It's happened because of the strength and creativity and faithfulness of this church community.

Because of the many people who stepped forward and offered their gifts freely

and generously for the good of God's people and God's mission in the city of Richardson.

And so as Pastor Linda returns, I can't think of a better gift to give her or to give ourselves,

than this, to keep going, keep tapping into the gifts God has given you,

keep showing up with what you have to offer and consider if you haven't already

to see in what ways you can continue to add your gifts to the collective ministries of this church.

And there are so many ways that you can do that.

If you've been blessed with financial abundance, our stewardship campaign is

just around the corner and your giving can empower the ministry of this church

to flourish in new and exciting ways.

And if you have a gift of teaching, we are always looking for people to guide learners of all ages.

And our Luke's Learners class with the children is starting up on the 10th.

And your presence could be the presence that helps a child feel seen, known, and loved by God.

And if you're somebody who loves people and can help create a welcoming space,

we need ushers and greeters who make a difference every single week by showing

hospitality to friends and strangers alike.

And if you're the quiet, steady kind of person, the behind-the-scenes helper

who sees what needs to be doing and goes ahead and does it,

we always need help with building repairs, managing Sunday logistics or running tech.

And your gifts can help keep this place running smoothly.

And if you don't see yourself in any of those roles, and you're not sure where

you fit, like I did with that truck project, but there's something stirring

in you, a passion, a nudge, a dream,

don't ignore it, but offer it.

Because the heart of this message is this, that you belong and your gift belongs.

And whatever it is, it has a place here at St. Luke's.

And if we can all do this this church can be a place where every person knows

they matter where no gift goes unnoticed and where children grow up surrounded

by mentors who believe in them,

where people can continue to walk through our front doors.

And instantly feel at home because someone smiled and meant it,

saint luke's can be a place where those who've never held

a microphone still be feel heard and those who've never stood up front still

know they lead this can be a church that sees the needs in the world he run

towards those needs that opens its doors to the lonely the grieving the joyful

and the doubting and says there's a place for you here.

We can be a church that doesn't wait for someone else to do the work,

but listens for the spirit to whisper and says, here I am, send me.

And I believe this message with all my heart that this kind of church is possible

because we have already begun to see glimpses of it this summer.

Through your faithfulness, through your creativity, and your generosity,

we have seen this come true this summer.

So as we welcome Pastor Linda home next week, I pray that you keep up the good work.

Don't be tempted to go back to normal, but to go forward, to keep listening

for what the Spirit is leading you to do, and to keep showing up,

to continue to offer your gifts,

granted to you through the Holy Spirit,

for the purpose of doing the Holy Spirit's work in the world, so that together, St.

Luke's can continue its growth to become the church God dreams us to be.

Amen. Hearts wide open, trusting that Christ goes before you.

Open doors with compassion.

Cross boundaries. Seek out the stranger and make them a friend.

Share the love of Jesus in words and action.

Let your life be an invitation as you go in peace to love and serve and welcome all.

Thanks be to God and we will. If you were inspired by this week's.