Sunday 11/10/24 Sermon by Deacon Tracy Anderson
Author:
November 12, 2024
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord our strength and our redeemer.
Born in August of 1910 in Skopje (scope ya), Macedonia,
Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (An yez Gon ja Boya jee-oo)
was the youngest of three children born to devoutly Catholic Kosovar Albanian parents. The name, Anjeze means, ‘pure or holy’ and her middle name Gonxhe (Gon ja) means a ‘flower bud’. Tragically, at the tender age of 8, this ‘pure flower bud’ lost her father, Nikolle, after he was poisoned by a political rival and died.
Though the family was left to struggle financially after his death, Anjeze’s mother, Drana, a deeply religious woman, refused to let their poverty stop them from doing God’s work. She, along with Anjeze and her older siblings, cared for the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the distressed in their own neighborhood, because Drana believed that “the importance of leading a Christian life, albeit without deliberately attracting attention to one’s own virtue, should be communicated to ‘our’ children.”
Spurred on by her mother’s devotion to Christ, young Anjeze developed a fascination with the lives of missionaries in Bengal. At the age of 12 she felt her own calling from God and at 18 she left home and family to join the Sisters of Loreto at the Loreto Abbey in Ireland.
Her hope and prayer was to eventually join the Sisters of Loreto in India so that she might minister to the poor there. Her prayers were answered in 1929 when she finally arrived in India, and then again in May of 1937, when Anjeze Gonxhe (An yez Gon ja), the pure flower bud, took her final vows and officially became Mother Teresa. Teresa after St Therese of Lisieux (liz yuh) and called “mother” as was the custom of the Sisters of Loreto for nuns who taught in the convent school.
Small in stature, but with an enormous soul filled with the light of Christ, Mother Teresa devoted the rest of her life to sharing God’s love and compassion, following the example of her mother by caring for the poorest of the poor, the sick and hungry, the outcasts.
Though living out her own vow of poverty, she did not let that stop her from doing the work God called her to do.
Mother Teresa is quoted as saying,
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love".
She also said,
“I am but a little pencil in the hand of God, as he writes his love letter upon the world.”
What If each one of us saw ourselves as a pencil, a humble, yellow, number two pencil in the hand of God? Use me, God, to write your love letter!
Deacon Tracy Anderson, St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, Sunday, November 10, 2024
A man sat in a courtyard, watching the crowd as they came and went, men and women, young and old, hurrying to bring their offerings to the temple. Mostly ordinary people there to quietly conduct their business and be on their way, although it wasn’t uncommon for certain rich people to make a great show of how very generous their offerings were.
Suddenly someone catch’s Jesus’ eye. His gaze stops. Is it a wealthy man he sees, some benefactor of the temple, giving with great pomp and circumstance in order to be held in high regard?
Not at all; on the contrary it is a lowly, destitute widow who holds his attention. He watches the woman, who without pretense quietly gives her meager offering, just two small copper coins, and goes on about her day. Two small coins, worth only a penny, certainly nothing extraordinary. Except to Jesus.
He called his disciples to him and said, " Listen to me! This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
We tend to believe that in order to give, we must have an abundance, some ‘supply’ from which to give. And yet this woman had just given ALL she had to live on. Not just until next payday. Not until she could transfer some money over from her savings. ALL she had. Because of the abundance of her LOVE for God and her trust in him, she was able to give it.
Giving out of her poverty.
A pencil in the hand of God, though she could never imagine that her story would still be told 2000 years later. A simple yet brilliant example, seen through Jesus’ eyes, of what it looks like to trust and serve God.
The Bible is, in fact, filled with stories of people who were impoverished in some way or another, the weak and simple, the unskilled, the broken, the failures, those on the outskirts of polite society. Yet, those are the ones God chose to use in spite of, sometimes because of, what they lacked.
Abraham believed he was too old to be a father
Elijah suffered from depression
Joseph suffered abuse
Moses had a speech impediment
Gideon was afraid
Rahab was a prostitute
Jacob was deceptive
David was an adulterer and a murderer
Jonah ran from God
Peter denied Christ
Martha was a worrier
Zacchaeus was short
Paul persecuted Christians
All had something that could have rendered them useless to God, and yet they were the very ones he chose. Their love for him and their desire to serve him mattered more than what they lacked, their struggles and failures, their sins, or their imperfections.
A number of years ago, I was diagnosed with Complex PTSD. Some of you may know this about me and some may not, but its not a secret, it’s simply part of who I am. It is a mental illness that throughout my life has brought with it bouts of debilitating depression and which to this day routinely challenges me with a host of fears and anxieties. It's an illness that I once believed disqualified me from any kind of serious ministry.
And yet, by God’s grace, here I am, one of your deacons at St Pauls.
Throughout my journey to the diaconate God and I had countless long talks. Many of which, on my part, went something like, “God, I want this so much, with all my heart I want this, but are you sure? I’m not brave, I’m not strong, I don’t have much education, I have fears and doubts. You do know me, right? Are you sure you want ME?”
And no matter how many times I prayed that prayer, God’s consistent reply was “Yes Tracy. I know you. I have called you by name; you are mine. And yes, I want you. I know what you lack, I see your struggle, and you are still the one I choose for this. My grace is enough for you on this journey. Trust me. I love you.”
My beloved friends, we all have things we lack, areas in our lives where we believe we are too poor, too broken, too sinful, or too fearful to be of use to God. But let us all find encouragement in these compelling words of God found in 2 Corinthians, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Cor 12:9)
Let us be willing to embrace the work God is doing in and through us, even out of our poverty, willing to listen, willing to trust, willing to love.
Willing to be a small pencil in his hand as he writes his love letter upon the world.
Amen
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