Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
In the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, we see a great cast of heroes with amazing powers. There's Thor, literally the stuff of myths and legends. There's Captain America, an icon who can literally rip a log in half. There's the Hulk who is... the Hulk. There's Iron Man who has robotic peacekeeping armor that only gets better every movie. There's even Black Widow, a super spy who is the only one who can calm the Hulk down.
And then there's Hawkeye, played by the amazing Jeremy Renner. He's the only one who gets hurt at the start of the movie, albeit from a speedster who shows up from nowhere. His power is that he's an archer.
And yet, despite how much the Internet loves to make fun of him, Hawkeye has an important role. His wife tells him when the Avengers find themselves in hiding in the middle of the film that Hawkeye needs to be the center for the team right now. He needs to be the one to keep them together.
Well, the Avengers find themselves with a few new members in the final battle, one of them being Scarlet Witch who is possibly the most powerful member with her unknown, ill-defined powers. She ends up in a small abandoned room in the town they are defending. Hawkeye comes in to help, and she breaks down saying she can't do it and that its all her fault.
To be fair, it is, but Hawkeye looks past that. He says to her "there are killer robots, the city is flying, and I've got a bow and arrow. If you want to sit this out, that's fine, but if you go out there, you're an Avenger."
Hawkeye then goes out himself, mumbling about his own insecurities. That is exactly what Scarlet Witch needs to go out and help save the town and the other Avengers.
Hawkeye teaches us that it doesn't matter who we are, or what abilities we have. As Ephesians also tells us this morning, we each have gifts that are needed to help the church. We each have gifts that bring us into unity.
No matter how seemingly unimportant those gifts may seem to us, they are absolutely necessary to the life of the church. They are also all necessary.
No matter what you do, if you plan events, if you serve in our services or out in the world, if you give your money or even your time, or if you just bring not even food, but a friend to our 3rd Sunday Luncheon, you are using your gifts to help Jesus Christ in the world. You are doing what God is calling you to do.
I've seen so many great examples of service in my time here. I've seen people reach out to help those in this community, selflessly and sacrificially. I've seen people provide for those in mourning, at the last minute at times too. I've seen the whole church get up and help lovingly strip our altar on Maundy Thursday.
Never let that sense of Spirit and Unity die in this church. There's only one person any of this is all about. It's not you, it's not me, it's Jesus Christ. To serve Him means we all have to work together. It means we have to use our gifts, whether seemingly great or seemingly small. We need all of us working together to do Jesus' work in the world. We need your gifts.
And if you want to discern how God may be calling you to use your gifts, I would love to sit down and talk with you about that. That is what Jesus is asking, that we put ourselves forward and try because in doing so, we will come to a deeper understanding of what it is God wants us to do.
This is my hope for St. Paul's and the church at large, that we all come together to grow in our gifts, that we are strengthened in our lives as Christians, and that we do all this so that we can do the work that God has given us to do.