Sermon 08/24/08 (Romans 12:1-8)

“Olympic Responsibilities”
Romans 12:1-8
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 24 August, 2008
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
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 We have Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Dara Torres. Usain Bolt. ...And, of course, Michael Phelps! Ben has taken to going around the house saying “Phelps-Phelps-Phelps-Phelps-Phelps,” not because we have been watching every single swimming event, which we haven’t, but because his name is everywhere! His mother returned to her job as a principal at Windsor Mill Middle School this past week, and she needed a police escort to get there. How many middle school principals have paparazzi following them?!

Suddenly we have a whole cadre of celebrities, people whose Olympic abilities amaze us. For these few short weeks we are able to talk about sports that we barely knew existed. Water polo?! Since when do I know what a “4x100 relay” is or know what you’re talking about if you say “he won the 800.” Since when do I know that a diver needs to keep her knees tucked and what constitutes “too much splash” when she goes into the water? ...And since when is a swimmer an international celebrity?!

During the Olympics, something happens to our world. We become transfixed by people who can do things we didn’t even know were possible. We become interested in activities that weren’t even a blip on our radar screen a few weeks ago. And suddenly “world wars” are played out on the track, or the volleyball court, or in the swimming pool. What was, maybe even last week, an “arms race” suddenly becomes a foot race, where the winner doesn’t get to blow up the world but instead gets a gold medal placed around his neck while his opponent goes home empty-handed...but very much alive.

The Olympics are surrounded by politics, yes. We must contend with the human rights record in China and whether or not world leaders should support the decision to host the Olympics in Beijing. We must contend with cheating, doping scandals, all of the human stuff. But mostly we just watch the amazing talents of the athletes and the camaraderie among contestants from around the world. I love that the biggest basketball star in the world, Kobe Bryant, is in awe of the swimmer, Michael Phelps.

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.”

Olympic athletes are extreme examples of “gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” I look at how some of these athletes move and contort their bodies and wonder how on earth they are doing it. I think to myself, “God certainly didn’t bestow that gift upon me!” Yet as my jaw drops and my eyes blink in awe, watching one athlete or another do some ridiculous feat or another, I realize something. I may not be able to fly through the air on “the uneven bars” or do a “triple backward twist” off the diving board, but there are probably things I can do that these ridiculously talented athletes couldn’t do. As I said, Kobe Bryant is in awe of Michael Phelps, so even Olympic athletes can’t do everything. How many of them could preach a sermon every Sunday, I wonder? How many of them have studied Russian (the Russian athletes don’t count). And, I wonder, how many of them can quote the movie “The Princess Bride” backwards and forwards?! Yes, there are things I can do that maybe even the greatest Olympic athletes in the world can’t do!

This is true for every one of us. You might not be able to win a gold medal swimming “the 200,” and you might not feel comfortable preaching a sermon every Sunday. But God has bestowed upon you gifts that are all your own. Anna is a butcher. My fingers are too clumsy to cut meat. Lois is “a tech person.” I can’t watch when Ben fixes my computer because I get so nervous. Danny does landscaping. I am a terrible gardener. Each of us has gifts and these gifts are, of course, not limited to our jobs. Indeed, the gifts of which Paul speaks in our reading from Romans are spiritual gifts: prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, leadership, and compassion. These are gifts that I have witnessed in many of you.

It is with these gifts, and other “gifts of the spirit,” that we are to serve God and one another. Paul speaks here of “living sacrifice,” and by this he means that we devote ourselves to serving God. We do this, in part, by the ways in which we serve the church. These days, the greatest “sacrifice” that people make for the church is time, and I encourage you to make that sacrifice. For some, it is a sacrifice to even get out of bed on a Sunday morning, after working six days a week, sometimes late into Saturday night. But church, and the service of God, require more than Sunday morning. They require making time for God, making time to pray, read the scriptures, attend other church events, such as Bible study, pancake breakfasts, funerals and weddings, and birthday parties, perhaps joining the church council, mowing the church lawn, helping out elsewhere. You don’t have to go to every single one of these events or do everything in the church. I understand, too, that some of you work jobs where you don’t have much control over your schedule, and your boss does not care if you have church responsibilities. I believe God understands this too (your schedule, not your boss). But unless you absolutely have to be somewhere else, you can make time for church.

Making yourself a living sacrifice for God also requires using our God-given gifts. This doesn’t mean you have to bake a 5-layer cake every time you sign up to “Treat,” even if God has graced you with that particular gift...and we would really enjoy it. But it does mean that you have to use your God-given gifts to serve God and one another. Being a Christian, and being a member of the Church, is a high calling. We are all recipients of God’s grace, yes, regardless of who we are, where we are on life’s journey, or whatever we may or may not have done in our lives. But even though God loves the worst sinners among us, God calls upon us to serve.

Most Olympic athletes make enormous sacrifices for their sport. They sacrifice having a normal childhood (and adulthood), so that they can practice nonstop. They sacrifice friendships, time with their families, eating a piece of that delicious 5-layer cake, sleeping late, taking a day off. Some of these sacrifices are healthy; others are not. But if a 19-year-old gymnast can sacrifice her entire life to the sport, I think we can handle sacrificing more of our time and energy to the Church.

Take time to discern what gifts God has given to you, and use those gifts for all they’re worth. There is something in this church, and in the wider church, and in the world at large, for every single one of us to do. There are ways to serve God that every single one of us can do. You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to be a member of this church. But you do have Olympic responsibilities. By the grace of God we have all been given the power to serve. Let’s get to it.

Now let us pray.