Loving God, you not only call us into ministry, but you also provide all that is needed to carry it out by the power of your Holy Spirit. Help us to be aware of what you can do through us, and strengthen us in our resolve to follow Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I know some saints who have an inferiority complex. No matter what it might be that God is calling them to do, they can't do it. After all, surely the message must have been meant for somebody who is so much more skilled and more faithful and more outgoing and more able than they are. They don't know it, but false humility like this is actually a copout. The thing is, the God who calls us into ministry is the same God who inspired Paul to exclaim, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).

You see, God never calls people to do things which are impossible. However, God does call people to do things where they're going to need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in order to do it. Still, I know some saints who have an inferiority complex. I know some saints who don't want to allow God to work through them. I know some saints who probably exasperate God at times, so that God might even say, "I don't want to hear about what you can't do! - What can you do?"

The thing is, though, that God has a long history of working with saints like this, and even working through them! Take Abraham and Peter, for example. First of all, Abraham - What do you really know about Abraham? What stories have you heard about him? [Possibilities:
- almost sacrificing his son, Isaac
- leaving his homeland to follow God's call
- God's covenant with him
- Abraham & Sarah entertaining angels
- bargaining with God over Sodom

Paul gives the "sanitized version" in his letter to the Romans, where Abraham never wavers from his faith and believes God's promises right away (Rom. 4).

There are things you might not have heard re: the promise that Sarah would bear a son who would "give rise to nations" (Gen. 17:16). Some of Abraham's responses:
- gives Sarah away to others as wife (Gen. 12 & 20)
- proposes his slave Eliezer as his heir (Gen. 15)
- has a child by Hagar (Sarah's maid) instead (Gen. 16)
- laughs at God's promise (Gen. 17:17)

Certainly, Abraham is known for his great faith - after all he even left his homeland in order to answer God's call. Yet, Abraham is very much an every day saint. He has his good days, and then he has his lapses which probably leave God wanting to throw up his hands in despair each time!

Well, and then there is Peter. What do you know about Peter? Possibilities:
- ordinary fisherman who became a great preacher
- denied Jesus after saying that he wouldn't
- confesses Jesus as the Christ, then doesn't understand
- the leader of the disciples
- always the impetuous one

Peter had his good days, too. Yet, he had these very human lapses where he seems to forget everything that he thought he knew. You can almost see Jesus shaking his head and saying, "Peter, Peter, Peter... You just don't know yourself yet, do you?"

And yet Peter and Abraham are among so many very fallible saints whom God was able to work through in spite of themselves! So what right do any of us have to say that "God can't possibly work through me!" Because of the Scriptures, we know that God uses people who are old (look at Abraham & Sarah!). God uses people who are young, who have lapses in faith, who don't understand, who laugh at God's promises, and who even deny knowing Jesus and yet repent later on. God uses these people - not because they are perfect, or even have perfect faith, but because they are open to God's call and will allow God to work through them.

One of the things that probably scares people the most about the Christian faith is the call to share that faith with others. We are afraid that we won't know what to say or when to say it. We are afraid of what others will think. We are afraid of the negative responses that we might get. Yet, we are never told to go and share the good news and to rely only on ourselves! Instead, we are promised that the Holy Spirit will speak through us and will pray through us and will even give us the words to say (Mk. 13:11).

One of the scariest things for me when I started my internship was visiting people in the hospital. I didn't know what I would say or how the people would react to me being there. And so I would pray all the way to the hospital that the Holy Spirit would work through me and would speak through me and would help me to listen. I found that as I did this, I was, indeed, given the words that I needed at the right time. I was also given the words that I needed when I was asked to pray, as long as I handed it over to the Holy Spirit to work through me.

Now, just in case you were wondering, this is not true only for pastors. God's promise holds true for all who are open to having the Holy Spirit work through them. The Spirit is ready and willing to work through those who teach, those who lead youth groups, those who visit the sick and the shut-ins, those who offer their gifts as worship assistants, those who serve others, and those who dare to have a conversation with another person about their faith. The Spirit is ready and willing to work through each and every person who is gathered here today - every person who is open to God's call and who is willing to use their gifts in God's service.

Yes - Abraham wasn't perfect by any means, and yet through him and his descendants all the nations of the earth have been blessed - and that blessing has been extended to us through Abraham's descendant, Jesus the Christ. Peter wasn't perfect either, and yet became the leader of the early church and a powerful preacher and healer.

We, also, are far from perfect, even though we have been forgiven through Jesus Christ. Yet, all who have been baptized into Christ have also been given his Spirit, who gives to each one of us gifts for ministry and then calls us to use them in service to others and for the glory of God. Let us not recite to God all of the things that we cannot do, but let us rather open our hearts to the Holy Spirit. May we, too, be able to say with Paul, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Amen.

Lent 2(B) Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
March 12, 2006 Romans 4:13-25
St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church Mark 8:31-38
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore
? 2006 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved