Monday, November 26, 2007

Giving Thanks to God

Preached during the 8:00AM Worship Service
Udarbe Memory Chapel, Silliman University Church
Text:  Psalm 100:1-5

Good morning! How are you? Kumusta? Greetings like these usually elicit more or less the kind of response like that of the greeting, and we usually shot right back – “I’m fine, Okay lang, Mao ras gihapon, etc.” These are exactly not serious talks nor in-depth conversations, but small talks that have evolved into clichés. These clichés have become normal brief interchanges among friends and acquaintances.

We couldn’t help it but clichés have in one way or another become a way of life for some, if not most, of us today. The sad thing is that, if this is will become the essence of our communication today, for sure our relationships will definitely stall instead of improve. Worse it might go down the drain. It is only through the honest sharing of emotions and feelings that we develop our relationship with others.

Nothing is truer in our relationship with our God. Sadly, in the hustle and bustle of our lives, we tend to just easily mutter a worn-out sentence or two to God and call it a prayer and go one with our lives. Yes, while God can hear us even in these kinds of prayer, sadly, our relationship with God will surely suffer.

Our scripture today comes from a book that expresses the heart and soul of humanity. In it are found the very expressions of authors who experienced doubts, fears, joys and jubilations honestly expressed in words. All these point to a relationship between the writers and God that is truly deep, honest and genuine. (iLumina Bible Software)

Psalm 100 expresses one of the central themes of the book of Psalms, that of Thankfulness.

Thankfulness—this is what we are celebrating today. Although the history of the American Thanksgiving Day can be traced back to the lives of the early Pilgrims, our thanksgiving today should be a reflection of our very own experiences in light of our Christian faith.

So, why do we give thanks today? Yes, we do recognize that everything comes from God and so we give thanks. However, we must remember that beyond this seeming cliché of thanking God for everything, there’s a deeper meaning to all of these. We need to recognize that there are certain essential traits that characterize genuine thanksgiving. (from C. Welton Gaddy, Genuine Thanksgiving, The Minister’s Manual, 1998-1999)

First is that Christian thanksgiving stems from a relationship. The story of Abraham being chosen by God to be the ‘Father’ of all nations is a story of a covenant relationship. The story of the fall of humanity necessitated the need for us to be redeemed. And in the story and history of our faith, God called out Abraham and established a covenant, an agreement, for them to help God achieve the plan of redeeming the people and the creation. God made a covenant with Abraham, for God to bless Abraham in order for him to be the father of a great nation, for God to bless this great nation with their own land, and sustain, provide and protect them against their enemies.  In return, as their part of the covenant, the people, through Abraham should agree to be used by God to become a blessing to all nations and thereby redeeming them back to God.

The story of Abraham and his call is the story of the very reason why we exist as a community of faith and why weare here as a community of faith today—because of the covenant between God and the people, the very story of our faith. And this covenant continues on with the greater covenant relationship of salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.

Christian thanksgiving therefore comes from a relationship with God.

Secondly, we need to remember that faith fashions Christian thanksgiving. Genuine thanksgiving is an act of faith. We don’t do it for us to feel good, but we thank God as a response to God’s goodness, and responding to God with thanksgiving is as natural as breathing. This is who we are as Christians, being thankful is second nature. Even in suffering we are reminded to be thankful, not because of the sufferings but that inspite of the sufferings God is still with us helping us along the way and strengthening and ever equipping us to face such situations. For as St. Paul said in Romans (5:3-4), “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” Thanksgiving is always an act of faith.

Lastly, genuine thanksgiving finds expression in ministry. Let us remember God’s promises, let us remember that God promised to bless us—and I’m sure God did—and this God did for a very important purpose—for us, in return, to become blessings to others. If we are to examine our lives today, to count our blessings—everything that we have today—we can indeed very well say that we are all blessed.

One secret that I always love to share in terms of being so much blessed by God comes from Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matt. 25:14-30. In the parable, all of us are entrusted with blessings for us to make productive use—and that is to become blessings and in the process, be blessed ourselves. Those who use their talents, gifts and everything that God gave will surely receive more. For whom will God entrust his blessings but to those who know how to use them wisely and for the right purpose?

This is our covenant with God in the many blessings that we have and we have to recognize this by being thankful to God for entrusting us with such blessings and responsibilities.

As a people who have received God’s blessings, we are therefore expected to become blessings ourselves to others.  Becoming a blessing to others therefore means reaching out to others and sharing the Good News of God’s salvation, not just in word but more so in deed, in the way that God is leading us—in the way we live, relate with our family, our neighbors, our fellow workers in our workplaces and with the community as a whole.

As members of the household of God, we therefore have to remember that we have a covenant with God not just to go about with our daily routines, we have a covenant with God to be a blessing to the rest of God’s creation.

In our covenant, God intends us to be channels of God’s blessings to the world and that is the very reason why we are so blessed, in order for us to become blessings to others.  Being blessed by God therefore is not a privilege but a responsibility, a great responsibility that is borne out of our gratitude to God for God’s love to us through Jesus Christ.

Today, as we celebrate Thanksgiving  let us remember that God is again reminding us to do our part of the covenant, telling us to ‘Go and be a blessing to others as I have blessed you.’

In loving gratitude to God let us altogether respond to become blessings to each other, loving and caring for all as members of the household of God, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Posted by Rev. Callum Tabada at 00:54:53 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Monday, November 19, 2007

Pastor, Priest, etc.

November 11, 2007, Church Workers Sunday
8:00AM Worship Service, Udarbe Memory Chapel, Silliman University Church

Biblical Texts: Hebrews 5:1-5; Luke 1:5-9

Good morning! Several years ago a young pastor, fresh from the seminary, was called to become the administrative pastor of UCCP Valencia. Being a small church, and like almost all the rural churches, the church can only hire one personnel – the pastor, and all the rest of those who are involved in the church are volunteers. One day while the pastor, who was then single, was busy cleaning the parsonage and was in her ordinary cleaning clothes, a visitor came and said, “Day where can we find the pastor?” Amused with the unexpected visitor and the unexpected question, the pastor asked back, “Kay ngano man diay sir?” To which the visitor answered while stretching his neck and trying to look inside the house, “Basta kay naa koy tuyo niya. Asa man sya day?” “Ah, kuan, ako man ang pastor diri nong.” Perhaps her answer didn’t quite sink in immediately, or maybe because he didn’t believe the young pastor who was in her ordinary cleaning clothes. “Ang pastor ang akong gipangita day. Asa man sya? Kanang tigulang ba.”

Friends, in our celebration of the Stewardship Month, we emphasize today the Stewardship of Pastors, this Sunday being designated in the UCCP Calendar as Church Workers Sunday. That is why we are very happy and thankful that our liturgists today are fellow church workers coming from different special assignments and some students from the Divinity School.

Just like any other ordinary beings, church workers come in different sizes, from different backgrounds, with different characters and nuances. Just like that pastor in UCCP Valencia, some are very young while others, like our Pastor Emeritus Dr. Proceso Udarbe, are quite advanced in age. Some are introverts while some surpass a politician’s gift of gab and are very sociable.

While our scripture passages today in Hebrews and in Luke talk about priests, let me first talk about some of the other functions and roles of church workers in our community.

Aside from being a janitor and utility person at times like that of our pastor then in UCCP Valencia, church workers are basically teachers, always preparing for the Sunday School classes and Bible Studies. In larger churches, pastors become Deans of the most basic Theological School there is, and that is of course the church, where studies about who God is being taught, not only in Sunday Schools and Bible studies but even through the sermons and meditations that are preached. That is why pastors are worried no end when the church’s Sunday Schools and Bible study sessions are not well attended. Students just don’t go to seminars and listen to lectures once in a while, they go and attend regular classes to study and interact with their teachers in order to really understand what the lessons are all about and how these can be used in their day to day lives. I experienced teaching in the university and I always tell the students to study hard because what they learn in class will be of great use once they are already in the field. This is the desire of every church worker-teacher, that the lessons of the faith are seriously learned and applied to the lives of the community of faith.

Church workers also act as advisers, especially to the church-related groups such as the Women’s, Men’s, Young Adult’s and Youth groups in their different activities.

Corollary to being advisers, they are also counselors, someone who listens to members’ problems and helps them look at life in the eyes of our faith. Church workers spend quite a lot of time listening to members’ different concerns and problems and helping them unburden their loads.

Church workers are all missionaries, and they are most ready and willing to go where God sends them, even to assignments that are quite difficult and challenging. Church workers as missionaries always rely upon God’s guidance and strength in everything that they do, for in their own strength they can do nothing.

One of the things that we are currently doing is the campaign for the rural pastors fund drive. With this fund drive, we are actually recognizing the status of church workers as missionaries being sent to ‘mission’ areas, places where church workers’ financial support is not an issue not only because that is not the primary focus or reason for being of church workers, but also because the constituents or congregation that they are serving simply cannot afford even to provide three square meals a day for their own families.

In most small to medium sized churches, church workers are also the administrators of their churches and are bestowed administrative or managerial prerogatives and responsibilities in running the affairs of the church. In big churches like Silliman Church, an administrative officer or assistant is very much needed as the church workers are all preoccupied with the other functions more inherent in church workers. The presence of other regular church staff and personnel, and the responsibilities of maintaining order and managing its properties and resources is more than enough to take away some of the most important functions of church workers. And in our case, I believe we have to act on this, especially as we prepare for the hosting of the UCCP’s General Assembly in 2010 and our church’s centennial celebrations come 2011.

Church workers are also prophets. Prophets in the olden times are popular or unpopular due to their no-holds-barred telling of the truth about God’s judgment on his people. Prophets warn the people of their impending doom when they don’t follow God’s commands. Prophets shake the people and open their eyes to the reality of their sinfulness, their greediness. This function is why a lot of our church workers are branded as communists as they tell of the truth about God’s message for the people to help the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed; to bring a message disturbing the comfortable, for them to comfort the weary, for the rich to help and distribute their wealth to the needy who are also created and loved by God.

Yes, being prophets and disturbing the comfortable is a daunting task of church workers. However, church workers are also pastors. We like to call our church workers ‘Pastors’ for the very reason that the pastoral function is something that we very much love to be experienced from our church workers. As pastors, church workers are the shepherds of the flock, ever providing love and care to the congregation. The pastoral duty of every church worker is a reflection of the loving, caring, merciful and gracious nature of our God. As shepherds, pastors lead the flock to the right place, to the right mind set, to the right direction in their lives.

A big chunk of the role of church workers assigned in a church or local congregation is that of being a priest. Yes, pastors or church workers also function as priests. We are priests. Sometimes people call me ‘father’ when I’m attending functions and wearing my clerical garb, and I smile because I am a father of my three children, but yes, we church workers function as priests as well. In our gospel reading in Luke, we are given a glimpse of the life of one of the priests at that time—Zechariah, who was married to Elizabeth who also came from a priestly lineage. They were the parents of John the Baptist.

As priests, church workers perform sacramental rites and functions that remind us all of our holy relationship with God. In the Old Testament priests perform a very important role in the life of God’s people. In our Hebrew scripture, we are made to understand the calling and role of priests:

1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. 4 And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “Thou art my Son, today, I have begotten thee”;

Yes, as priests, church workers are, as verse 1 say, “chosen to represent other human beings in their dealings with God.”

But the coming of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, opened up the whole priesthood to all of us who believe in him. That is why we can now come before God without the necessity of priests to come to God on our behalf. In the passion story, the temple veil was torn apart, opening our access to God through Jesus Christ. And this direct access to our loving, caring and merciful God granted to all those who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, accorded us the title of the so-called universal priesthood of all believers.

As we celebrate Church Workers Sunday today, let us remember our church workers wherever they may be serving today, and let us remember our call to support them in their ministry and mission which is God’s ministry and mission in the world. Moreover, let us remember that as the death and resurrection of Christ has torn the veil in the temple, we are all called as well to do God’s work and mission in this world today. Amen.

Posted by Rev. Callum Tabada at 08:14:34 | Permalink | No Comments »