Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, ELCA

Opening Prayer:   We pray that out of your glorious riches you will strengthen us with power through your Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.   We pray that we, being rooted and established in your love, may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is your love in Christ, that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I am not a big TV fan, but I have certainly heard of the Sunday evening “Desperate Housewives”  program…humor and drama – a parody on daytime soap operas and on women in suburbia.  They live on Wisteria Lane…the name itself leads to the characters and the plots.  The wisteria vine clings tighter and tighter…it holds fast and strangles.  Thus the women (the housewives, if you will, to use a rather outdated label) are held in the powers of passion, lies, deceit, alcohol, unfaithfulness, gossip – they are drama queens, whiners, perhaps aggressive and angry women but as we see them, powerless in the tentacles of sin.   Perhaps they do indeed wallow in sin – it brings attention.

But beyond the superficial and self destructive characters of this show, let’s take a look at the truly desperate women (and men and children) that I want to lift to your hearts and minds.   Yes, these too may fall into alcohol and depression and poverty, but they feel powerless in the situations in which they find themselves….they and their families may be hurting, homeless, hungry, struggling with children or illness or abuse.  They may be diminished and discounted in their cultures--- which reduce women to bearing babies and preparing food.  The women may be in Madagascar, Niger, Darfur, Liberia, Iraq or Haiti.   They may be in New Orleans or Detroit, or Miami or Denver, or La Puente or Estes Park.  They need to be empowered by the helping hands of other women through Christ.

Historically, women of the church have sacrificed and helped with mission work…saving “egg” money, or bits of change, running a soup kitchen or fixing a Thanksgiving dinner, with inviting and kind hospitality,  helped with orphanages and schools. During their own hard times they have saved balls of string, mended cotton stockings over and over, taken old worn shirts and fabrics to make quilts.  They sacrificed.   They gave. They stood with commitment for justice for the poor and oppressed….and set aside Thankofferings in various ways.

Women’s lives have changed today…women of some cultures, particularly in the U.S.  Women have access to a wide variety of careers and have greater freedom and ability to contribute to the ministries they value.   Women also have the opportunity to respond to the call to ordained ministry. Women are committed to faith and action.

Where do we, women of faith, of the church, women of the community find the empowerment to serve ?

We have undoubtedly encountered Christians in discussions within our community or family who raise above us their spirituality wherein Christ relates to us primarily as individuals….we just need to let Jesus into our hearts. Sometimes it stops there, with the private Jesus who is “for me”.   It seems to end thereas if that is the summit of faith… me and Jesus. 

Well and good, but it cannot end there.   Our vision of Christ begins to grow, to enlarge, to expand.  Christ is truly King, the power that stands behind the universe, the creator of all that is.  Not just the convenient one we attach to our lives in times of distress or when we need comfort from the confusion and complexities of life. 

Today we acknowledge Christ the King…From the reading in Revelation……”He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  “We acknowledge Christ as King—the first born of creation.   In him all things hold together.  Christ stands behind us. He is the salvation of all creation—the whole created order…Christ brings wholeness….

God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or can even imagine.   William Barclay writes “It is as if we are asked to look at the universe – to the limitless sky above, to the limitless horizons on every side, to the depth of the earth and at the seas beneath us…The love of Christ is as wide as that” Barclay Daily Bible Study 1958  p. 155-56

In the Gospel of John, We are called to serve His kingdom on earth…to live out his creation and his purpose…He promises to empower us…BY THE TRUTH .  We live in grace, not guilt.  We are free to “wallow” in grace, not sin and guilt. We can work through Christ’s calling us to empower women throughout the world.  Beyond the me and Jesus--- but strengthened through our love for Christ…moving beyond “me and Jesus”

This we can do here at SMLC…Quilts, water, world hunger, missions, safehouses, shelters, friendship.  We can tell of God’s love in our hospitality as strangers become friends. We tell of God’s love as we sing and worship and study together.  We see God’s love in the beauty of creation.   Today, you are invited to join the Women of the ELCA in the annual Thankoffering.  Today you are invited to remember that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.   Today you are invited to remember the special blessings of your life and give thanks for them in tangible ways.  Today we remember that we journey together that others might be rooted and grounded in love.  We journey together so that future generations might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ….the King  Amen.