Your Own Song

Preached at Prescott Memorial Baptist Church
March 18, 2012

Psalm 107: 1-9
Ephesians 2:1-10

I always enjoy the opportunity to preach here at Prescott Church. Today I am aware of what a small speck I am, floating along the surface of a deep river of tradition and history in this church. Thank you for inviting me to be part of today’s worship and Rodney’s commissioning for mission work in Haiti.

I have heard about a tribe of people in one of the central African nations who cherish their long held tradition of assigning a song to each child. When a woman realizes she is pregnant she goes out to a safe and sacred place where the sun and the wind can speak to her without competition from other voices. She listens as does the child within her until the song of the child rises up out of the silence and claims the child. During the pregnancy the song is sung to the unborn child by his mother and father, by siblings and grandparents, by neighbors and friends. Friends sing the song as the child is born. The song is sung on birthdays and at the wedding of the child when love joins the one song to the song of another. And finally that song is sung when the person’s body is laid to rest. It is the song of one life and all the members of the tribe know the songs of their friends, family and neighbors.

Today we have gathered in this safe and sacred place to worship the God who has given us birth. We gather to sing songs of praise and to have our faith restored. We gather to be with people who know us and know the songs we love to sing. Being faithful in the Christian tradition includes belonging to a community. God’s grace is made evident through our community life, worship, mission and support for one another.

Rodney Rastall, a member of this community of faith, has been called to serve in Haiti. He will fly there this week and use his skill as a film maker to document the work of Trinity Hope as they educate and feed children in Port au Prince. He will film the faces of the children who are fed at Trinity Hope's school. And he will make it possible for the stories of those children to be shared around the world.

I asked Rodney about his favorite song. He tells me that the song that touches him most consistently and deeply is “Amazing Grace.” Rodney tells me that he and his family moved 27 times before Rodney finished the ninth grade. That is a lot of moving around! So many houses, schools and churches! So many names to learn, friends to make and songs to sing along the way. Rodney has carried his song with him from place to place. He came to Prescott about seven years ago and found a congregation of people who have sung his favorite song with him, given him a place in the bass section of the choir and taught him numerous new songs along the way.

Today’s scripture from the second chapter of Ephesians focuses on grace. It’s difficult for us to understand the grace of God. In our way of thinking we have to work and earn whatever we have. But in God’s economy of grace the process is different than what we are accustomed to. We cannot earn God’s grace by involving ourselves in good work. We cannot open a savings account and store the grace of God in a bank for the future. And yet, ironically, we cannot accomplish all the good work we are capable of doing without the grace of God to make it all possible.

Over two thousand years ago Cicero said, “It is not by muscle, speed or skill that great things are achieved but by reflection, force of character and good judgment.” Two thousand years later we are so busy working and trying to make things happen that we have little time left over to think about the value of what we’re doing.In this worship service, in this hour together, I hope we can realize the absolute value of simply being, being here and being here together. It may seem like nothing is being accomplished. But it’s not the accomplishment we’re trying to value. As people of faith we are here to value the grace that has brought us this far. We are here to acknowledge our need for continued grace in order to sing our own song.

Rodney will take with him to Haiti the love and support that he has received in this community. Seven years ago he found a place to stay, to put down roots. He found a place to belong and sing his song. Because of your capacity as a congregation to share the love and grace of God, Rodney has been encouraged to respond to God’s call. He has the courage necessary to go to a place where the needs are overwhelming. He has the faith to believe that what he has to give will be enough for the task at hand. This is when the people of Prescott get to celebrate your tradition of hospitality and your long history of being a welcoming and nurturing place for God's grace. This is the time when you have a chance to celebrate and sing your own song.Rodney came here and found people who help him sing his own song. Amazing Grace.

Life is unpredictable. Rodney knows this from first-hand experience. Packing up boxes and filling the moving van over and over again before he was fifteen years old.Who knew what the next neighborhood would offer him? The children of Haiti also know the reality of unpredictability. How could they know what the earthquake would do to them, their families and their hope for the future? How could they know that a man in Memphis, Tennessee would be willing to travel many miles to see them, meet them, help them and film them in an effort to solicit support for their schools, their lunch program and their futures? How do any of us know what their story, once shared, will mean to us all?

The Shakers have a song: “It’s a gift to be simple. It’s a gift to be free. It’s a gift to come down where we ought to be. And when we find ourselves in a place just right it will be in a valley of love and delight.”

It is by God’s grace that we find ourselves in a place just right. It is by God’s grace that we find that valley of love and delight.

Our Aztec neighbors south of the border tell this traditional story: A very long time ago there was a great fire in the forest that covered the entire earth. People began to run. Animals ran and flew. The owl spread his great wings to escape but he stopped and looked back over his shoulder at a very tiny bird that was flying back and forth from the river to the fire. The owl recognized the tiny bird as the Quetzal bird.

The small bird was picking up drops of water from the river and then returning to the fire to throw the water on the flames. The owl went to his brother, the Quetzal. “What are you doing? You must know that you cannot achieve a thing with these small drops of water. You must fly away and save yourself.”

The small bird looked at the larger bird. “Brother Owl, I am making the most out of the life I have been given.”

And it is remembered and told from generation to generation how the forests that covered the entire earth were saved from a great fire by a small Quetzal bird, an owl and many other animals and people who got together and put out the flames.

Only one of us will go to Haiti but all of us live by God’s grace. Together we can put out the flames and save the forest. Together we can put an end to hunger in Haiti. One drop of grace at a time.

Amen.