Rising Up - Rev Dr Kelly Sprinkle 5-11-25

Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 by Wendy Murray

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is from Second Corinthians, and also from Paul, who
was an apostle of Jesus Christ. This treasure we possess
is in earthen vessels, to make it clear that it's
surprising and suppressing. Power comes from God and not from us.

(00:31):
We are afflicted in every way possible, but we are
not crushed. We are full of doubts, but we never despair.
We are persecuted but never abandoned. We are struck down

(00:55):
but never destroyed. Continually we carry about in our bodies
the death of Jesus, so that in our bodies the
life of Jesus may also be revealed. While we live,

(01:19):
we are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus' sake,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed
in our bodies. So then death isn't work in us,
but life is at work in you.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Robert held his head in his hands. That's a little
of what we know that happened in the conclave this week,
that Robert Prevost held his head in his hands. I've

(02:20):
been trying to imagine that scene, what one might be
thinking as it became more and more clear a reality
that he would soon be the next Pope Leo the fourteenth,

(02:46):
I wonder was the news as it was emerging even
unto him?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Was it.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
More heavy than he imagined? Was it more unbelievable that he,
an earthen vessel like us, might be even being called.
His brother, who lives on the south side of Chicago,

(03:24):
said once he had asked his brother if he ever
imagined to be pope, and he said, no way, it's
not going to happen. And I asked again and again
it's not going to happen. But in the last few years,

(03:48):
or even months or days, his answer changed, not that yes,
I look forward to being pope someday, but if it
is God's will, I don't know about you, I too

(04:08):
would be holding my head in my hands. Every time
there is a major transition in life, I tend to
hold my head in my hands, wondering is this the
right way to go? Sometimes I've even joked my leadership style,
as I've tried once was led by a magic eight ball.

(04:30):
I would shake it and hope for the right answer.
Let it seldom worked. We like Pope Leo the fourteenth,
Robert Prevost, and all these other men and women in

(04:54):
the world are at times called to be leaders, leaders
who perhaps hold their heads in their hands, wondering why me,
There are surely better people than me. Yet God entrusts

(05:19):
each one of us the earthen vessels that we are,
sometimes vessels that feel completely empty and barren and dried out,
and sometimes overflowing with the beauty and the water of life.

(05:43):
Yet the challenge of being human leaders, even when the
Divine is speaking through us, is not to be presumptuous
that we already know that what everyone needs, and that
we become so presumptuous that what we believe is best

(06:04):
for me becomes best for everyone else. It's a bit
about humility. It's a bit about wondering. It's a bit
about stopping to imagine what's coming upon us, to imagine

(06:28):
if this is just a really bad headache we're having,
or that the spirit of life is moving within us.
We thus far this morning have celebrated the spirit of
life moving through the resurrection within each one of us.
We have said welcome. In many ways, we have said

(06:49):
that God is in each one of us, that God
is in each person in this world. And the call
to be leaders, it's not something that we should avoid
at all costs, But it is to hear what God

(07:10):
is calling within you and me. What is God calling
this community to be in the future. This church has
had a marvelous history since nineteen sixty two. For some
I describe Mountain Rice, it's still a very young church. Yes,

(07:34):
I know some of us here feel like we've been
around from the beginning, And yes you have, which is
odd for some churches. For some churches I have served
became in existence in eighteen o seven and eighteen twelve.
Even out on the Cape Cape Cod there's a church

(07:58):
that was formed in sixteen nineteen, which is a congregational
church that later became part of the United Church of
Christ in nineteen fifty four. Yet the spirit of God
has been calling out to each one of us. The

(08:20):
spirit of God, I imagine, is not speaking exactly the
same as it did in eighteen oh seven or eighteen twelve.
There are realities for the church there and other places
that would not imagine worship as we do it now.
Would never imagine images and words flashing upon the wall,

(08:45):
For if it had, it might have even seemed like
the hand of God was working that an image would
just appear out of nowhere. Yet churches time have changed
their mind and reconsidered. One church I served within its

(09:06):
history talks about in the mid eighteen hundreds expelling a
certain family from the church another word to be excommunicating.
The reason was for the lack of prayer. Will not

(09:31):
try that today, because I imagine many churches would suddenly
be more empty than they are now. But with generations
that passed, they became more than just busy bodies trying

(09:53):
to determine if someone has prayed enough. And I wonder
I'd love to ask that church council at that time, well,
how did you know? Were you peeping in their bedrooms
as they knelt the prayer at night? Were you watching
at their dinner table at night? Or were they a
little bit of trouble makers? Perhaps it was the spirit

(10:15):
of God moving and we didn't like it. But with time,
as the history goes, in the late nineteen hundreds, it

(10:35):
became an open and affirming congregation. Later it deemed it
needed a different type of church leadership. Realizing they could
not afford as much as they used to, they trusted
God for them a small congregation to called one that

(11:00):
not taking the traditional path of seminary, but have taken
a longer path through the New York School of Ministry
in the United Church of Christ to learn the skills
and to practice them, and to feel that God could
speak from someone who didn't head off to seminary at

(11:20):
age twenty two. Oh, my friends, what we are called
to be as leaders? It's not presumptuous. It's not about
having our own way, but to listen, to listen to

(11:46):
the voices of all God's creation, to listen to the
church at work and ministry, and to of common heart,
not to limit the church, to open the door wars,
to let the fresh air flow in. And sometimes as
much as that chili wind may be, or hot as

(12:07):
it may be, it may even disturb us. Yet we
have to trust that the wind of the spirit is
feeling us as earth and vessels. And with time, and
we're not there yet, there will be a day of
Pentecost when all that energy that God has filled us,

(12:31):
that you and I and I mean all of you
will be filled, and the leadership will be called forth,
and you are invited to hold your head in your
hands and pray. My friends. First Corinthians begins with one

(12:57):
phrasing love, and I add the words in leadership. Love
and leadership does not insist on its own way, and
it's not innerable, irritable. It keeps no record of wrongs.
Leadership welcomes every earthen vessel that's willing to be filled

(13:18):
and to be called and raised up as leaders, every gender,
every race, every person God speaks to. So rise up,
for God has called you as the prophets and leaders

(13:40):
of today, and to welcome what leadership may come your way. Amen,