Enough

A sermon based on 1 Chronicles 9:17-32 preached at Christ Congregation, Princeton, NJ on 11/17/13.

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up with my face planted in a church pew.  It’s not necessarily the most comfortable thing.  Pew fabric is usually that scratchy, durable type, and I’ve often been left with the imprint of it all over my face.  I’m telling you this to let you in on a little secret about myself.  I am skilled at napping in church pews, and really, just churches in general.  This probably started when I was young.  I have a memory of going to church with my family the night after a birthday sleepover.  I was in third grade, so about 8-years-old.  And like most kids this age, when given the chance, I stayed up as late as possible at this sleepover, playing truth or dare with my friends.  So I was exhausted when I got to church.  We probably got as far as the call to worship in the service and I was passed out, having fallen asleep in the pew, oblivious to the service around me. 

I perfected this skill a few years later when I was an intern at a church in Pennsylvania.  This church had an open door policy, which meant when I needed some time to clear my head the sanctuary was always open.  After some time for introspection and prayer, I nearly always found myself sneaking toward a horizontal position, and then next thing you knew I was taking a snooze in the pew.

So I really like these gatekeepers in Chronicles, spending the night near the house of God. 

But if you’re like me, this is the first time you’ve heard this text in a while.   If there are any Chronicles scholars here today, please let me know, but it seems like there are few and far between to answer our questions.  Who are these gatekeepers with funny names?  I think it’s a pretty valid question.  This is one of those texts that I need to be convinced to read.  It just seems strange and I don’t really understand it.  Who are these people and what on earth are they doing? 

I have a feeling that’s what people said about me when they would enter the sanctuary and catch me napping.  Who is this here and what is she doing?  I was also caught unaware a few other times at this same church in Pennsylvania in one of my other favorite hangouts, the women’s restroom.  Now to explain myself, it was a quite spacious restroom and included a rocking chair and seasonal decorations, so I would often take my reading and sit in this rocking chair to have some peace.  It was an introverts dream. But a few times, some of the women of the church would catch me there and ask what on earth was I doing hanging out in the bathroom?

But that really was the question for me.  What was I doing there?  Why was I hanging out and so comfortable in churches? 

This is a question I’m getting more and more now that I’m in seminary.  Why do you like church so much? Why do you want to be a pastor?  What are you doing hanging around these places?  I’ve generally found people to be curious about why a 23-year-old woman would be so bent on becoming an ordained pastor and devoting her life to hanging around pretty unglamorous churches. 

And I don’t always know what to tell them, and that’s not a great situation to be in.  Maybe it’s because like much of the genealogies of Chronicles, my story is not a very exciting story.  I don’t have a very grand story about the day that Jesus saved my life and when I decided to dedicate my life to the church.  I often hesitate to tell people the real reasons why I want to be a pastor, embellishing details here and there because it just feels too boring. I know why the mundane narrative of Chronicles can get to people and why we often skip right by its pages.  Why should we sit around and read about what the Israelites did with furniture?  Why should we care about the name of the person who was in charge of the bread?  It’s the same questioning that asks why should people care about our church budgets and what kind of hymnal we use?  Why should we care about the ordinary lives of the people of God? 

Never fear, I do have an idea why, but let me tell is through the story of the neglected bible character Shallum.  Forgive me if I take a few little liberties.  But the way I see it, Shallum is church leader who has been struggling.  Not just because of all the late nights he’s had to spend at the church, but because he just can’t seem to measure up to the guy who had been there before him, Phinehas.  Everywhere Shallum went people were always talking about how great Phinehas was, how wonderfully he tended to the church and just how godly of a man he was.  In the meantime, Shallum can’t even seem to get him family life right.  His son, Mattihiah, never seems to show up in time for church.  Mattihiah is a typical teenager, always sleeping in and talking back to his dad, probably because they had to leave mom back in Babylon when they moved to Jerusalem.  Everyone at the church sees this and watches Shallum, just as Shallum tries to follow God, tries to be someone that people would remember as godly. And he does this by showing up, week after week.  But no one seems to notice.  No one seems to care about the sacrifice Shallum is making to keep watch over the doors of the church, to tend to the altar, to keep the candles lit.  Shallum waits out these  long evenings, praying, O God, who are we that you are mindful of us? 

Oh yes, I can tell you the story of Shallum.  Because Shallum, and all of these other forgotten names listed in these genealogies we rarely read are the stories of the ordinary people of faith.  They are the pastors who work their entire lives underpaid.  These are the volunteer Sunday School teachers, the members of the church who make sure there is always enough toilet paper.  And I love this text in Chronicles, because we get a chance to remember these unsung followers of God. 

And if I read Chronicles I get to see their place in the story.  That’s all genealogies really are.  They’re lists of mini stories that deserve some more attention and careful reading.  These are stories of people trying to figure out who they are and how they connected to the Israelites way back when.  You can really see how far back they were trying to root themselves if you flip to the beginning of First Chronicles where the genealogy begins with Adam.  They were going way back.  But it was also a way to understand who they were now.  To connect what was ordinary about their lives, the tasks of watching over the furniture and the wine and bread at the church, and seeing that as a part of the whole history of God’s people. 

When people get ordained or licensed, we usually bring up some pretty impressive stories.  Stories of Samuel hearing God’s voice.  The disciples dropping their nets and following Jesus. Elisha picking up the cloak of Elijah.  And these are great, don’t get me wrong.  But they don’t really help me learn who I am.  Because as far as I can tell, I’m not Samuel.  Jesus has not recently materialized in front of me to ask me to leave my family.  I do believe people today are called like the heroes of the bible, but I also think more often than not, the story of our own lives are less dramatic. 

That’s my story that I’m often so hesitant to tell people. What I know in my gut, and what doesn’t always translate well to words, is that I am supposed to be a pastor because I love the church and I love being around churches.  That being near where I feel God is a habitual thing.  That I just show up.  That it’s what my family has done, so that’s what I do.  That my dad took me to bunches of boring church meetings and I just got used to going. That I just can’t help but be near the house of the LORD. 

Shallum’s story is my story, and I think our story. Showing up, week after week.  Being part of the church, because that’s the family story.  Keeping guard over the church.

The power of Chronicles is learning to understand that we too are connected.  We are a part of this.  If you are here today, you also have a place in the genealogy.  Chronicles is a part of the bible that is about looking back where we came from, but it was also written to let people know that they had a place where they belonged today.  I believe that is a message that is still true for us. 

The late Ken Utener, a Catholic Bishop said,

"It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. ... We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own."

God’s invitation to you is probably not for you to be a messiah.  God’s invitation to you to be part of the church story has probably not been loud, flashy, or dramatic. 

But, maybe, you’ve felt compelled, obliged, to just be near the house of God.  To keep watch. 

 

So maybe that’s what I need to tell people the next time they ask me why I want to be a pastor.  I should tell them, because pews are super comfortable for napping.  Because church bathrooms are always well-decorated.  But really, but because I am spending the night near the house of God, and it is my duty and my purpose and it is my story.

And that story is good enough.  Your story of how you got here is good enough.  No matter how mundane, how worn.  It doesn’t matter if you have fame, or popularity, or if anyone knows how to pronounce your name, your story is good enough for God and it is good enough to include in our family of faith. 

During the final hymn today we will be handing out thank you cards and stamps so you can write a note to someone to let them know that they have be doing a good job, that you appreciate their ordinary ministry, or just so you can write something that lets them know that they are good enough. Encourage and affirm someone in your life that they are worthwhile.  Thank them for showing up, day after day in whatever form their ministry takes, whether that is something traditionally ministerial or just the way that they serve God and the world.  Tell their story back to them, so they can know that someone has been paying attention. 

Read Chronicles or any of those other books of the bible you haven’t seen for a while and find the stories of the people around you, and maybe you will even find a little bit of your own story.  Keep looking, listening, and encouraging.

And let us all continually be drawn near to the house of God.

Amen.