Sacred Cow or Dinosaur BBQ Sermon

Time has shifted, circumstances have changed that effect our perception and reality.
Reading these words from Isaiah, 4000 years ago, have a whole new meaning and purpose, now.
Everyone who thirsts come to the waters, she who has no money, come!
Why expend your labor on that which cannot satisfy? Incline your ear, that your soul may live, God has made an everlasting covenant with you and through you!
Behold, you shall call nations that you know NOT, Nations that knew you NOT shall run, to you!

A SACRED COW is a program or practice of a people that is immune from attack or criticism, even to be venerated as sacred. The term comes from the Hindu who treat cows as more sacred, more important than people, believing that cows are closer to Heaven than people, that while thousands of people die from starvation, cows wander the streets, never considered as food, even to suggest such would be a profane sacrilege.
Dinosaurs are extinct beasts of the earth, that could not adapt and died off millions of years ago. We all know Dinosaur Barbecue.
The point is, at what point is something sacred, and when does a sacred cow become a dinosaur? Is anything truly sacred, is everything and everyone in the world corrupt?

Don Cross, Ted Kinder and Mark deWitt were in Southern Sudan to build a clinic, not by Chance or Luck, NOT for Profit or Gain, NOT on behalf of the church or Skaneateles, But simply because they possessed the gifts to do this, and they cared so deeply, Believed so much, that nothing could dissuade. In the process of building a Health Care Clinic, they also provided a fresh well of water, for any who were thirsty to come to the healing waters and drink! They provided the wonders of electricity and electric light, a telephone communication system to provide connection and assistance from the outside world. They called to a Nation they knew NOT, and this people of another age and time, who knew them NOT Came Running to Them.

Several years ago, we took the youth of the Church on their first Mission trip. We went to a tiny Baptist Church at the end of what was once a Railway Spur, that now was in a forgotten town. All week long these young people painted and scrubbed the Church inside and out, no small feat as they needed five levels of scaffolding to paint the ceiling. Throughout the week, people from the surrounding community stopped to see what was going on. Witnessing their mission, called people to faith. In a community of 85 residents, with 15 listed on the Rolls of the Church, that week, the Church held an Altar Call and 35 people came forward for Adult believer Baptism. The Church swelled from 15 to 50 in a week. Perhaps it had nothing to do with our presence, but I believe witnessing others giving themselves was aCall to faith.

Responding to these gifts, Ted, Don and Mark have been given African names.
Ted is MABUL (the White Cow of Peace),
Don is MAJUK the Black & White Cow,
Mark is ALEEK the Brown Striped Cow,
If Chuck returns being called TOUGH & STRINGY, we might wonder about their being named after Cattle, because in this Agrarian, Nomadic, Tribal culture the most wonderful gifts have been milk and meat from SACRED Cows. But before their spouses begin to believe these fellas are worthy to worshiped, recognize that what they have done, was to Call to a Nation they did not know literally living in the Stone Age, Calling them with gifts of water, electricity, communication and Health Care. Gifts that have changed that community for ever.
WE agonize over whether WE might be better off without constant communication, without all the electrical devices, pills and potions and salves for our neuroses.
But controling others, Making Decisions for others, is not Ministry.
One of the SACRED COWS we need to made a DINOSAUR is our desire for CONTROL.
Jesus did NOT Call Decision-Makers. Jesus Did not form Committees, or try to Control Others. Jesus Called Disciples and Commissioned them to go Minister to others.

People may seek decision-makers. People came to Jesus wanting “He who had healed and cared for the masses”, to CONTROL PONTIUS PILATE. To control EVIL, either Human Evil in the form of a DICTATOR like Pilate, or in the form of Nature and Circumstance with the Fall of a Tower, a hurricane or tornado. But the point of faith is not CONTROL or Dominance, the point of faith is to discern what GIFTS do we have to offer and how can these work with the gifts of others?

To use a SPORTS Metaphor, there is a difference between Coaching FOOTBALL and coaching SOCCER or BASEBALL. In Football, the Coach chooses the plays and the Quarterback follows through. In Baseball and Soccer, the Coach works with the best gifts of each player, then the team reacts to the circumstance, playing best when they pass the ball around WITH ONE ANOTHER.

Just as MAJUK and MABUL and ALEEK and Chuck are CALLING a people, from the Stone Age, to the 19th Century of running water; and to the 20th Century of Electricity and Telephones, SO ALSO WE AWAKE this morning called to the reality that we are no longer in the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, no longer in the MODERN AGE, or the ATOMIC or SPACE RACE, in the blink of an eye, a heart's beat, we have entered THE QUANTUM AGE. This QUANTUM TIME holds in balance multiple different interpretations of circumstance with a COMMON MISSION, a SYNERGY of TRUSTing that we can cooperate, we can share our gifts. The issue is no longer the LIMITATION of RESOURCES like Time and Energy, but rather how to encourage which gifts to be used when for the Whole Community of Faith, the BODY OF CHRIST.

In the QUANTUM AGE we use the Foundational Building Blocks of TRUST and COMMON MISSION to perceive that what matters is not WHO WINS, or WHO HAS THE MOST, but rather that we are all seemingly playing Catch Up. We lost an hour last night. Life is familiar, but now not quite so bitter cold as a day ago. So what can I offer to make your life brighter?

Take a deep breath and Consider, for what is required is not simply acceptance of an idea, or tolerance of others doing things differently, but an entirely different perspective on life. Generation upon generation we have nurtured the SACRED COWS OF CONTROL and DECISION MAKING, and these are not easy to Sacrifice. But that is the point of Sacrifice. If it were easy, there would be no sacrifice, this is making a gift of what we have MOST desired, all we have known, and trusting God and One Another for what may yet come in life.

According to the APOSTLE PAUL there are DIFFERENT GIFTS, but the Same Spirit, There are different ways of Knowing God, but the same God who is known. In his time, there was a NEED for the gift of CELIBACY, and the Gift of SPEAKING TONGUES, the Gift of EXORCISM, in addition to the GIFTS of TEACHING, PREACHING, CARING FOR THE SICK & CHILDREN. Today the GIFTS that are NEEDED also include COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY,
Knowledge of MEDICINES and DONATIONS,
Supporting YOUTH to Stretch their Wings,
FOOD PANTRIES and Means of Changing the Cycle of Poverty,
SOLIDARITY with those coming out of Prisons,
PERSEVERANCE to Survive CANCER and Still Hope,
Giving Birth to Children in a Time when we KNOW GENETIC PROBABILITIES,
understanding the LONELINESS of AGING,
LEADERSHIP not as Controlling from a desk or Boardroom, NOT as Charisma, but rather WITH TRUST.

There were times when the world needed DINOSAURS, in earlier ages we needed what were to us SACRED COWS, we can only afford the luxury of life in the present because of the sacrifices of others before us. The great risk of being Called from one age to another, is that we must let go what we have trusted and known, what have been to us Sacred Cows.
For the people of Southern Sudan, who not only have lived as long as any can remember in mud huts on the Serengeti, taking water from a watering hole, but now for 20 years have lived with a gun in their hand and fear of others killing them, TRUSTING, seeing a COMMON PURPOSE with those who once were enemies, will be hard. But it is a Calling to a NEW AGE, to REPENT and FORGIVE, and Live Differently, SEEKING ONES YOU DID NOT KNOW.

For the last three years, the Session of this Church have moved from having 24 members to having a far smaller number of 14. We have questioned what would happen with the Sacred COWS of Committees? The Call is to SHARE YOUR GIFTS. Rather than meeting every 3rd Tuesday at 7pm, to meet as needed, to do what is necessary and whatever we can.

Having shared the Names of MABUL, MAJUL and ALEEK, having brought back for John the name of MAGAAR meaning the “Long Horned Bull”, I mentioned to John that his Father and Uncle the Chiefs of Duk County had given me a name as well, they passed on the name of their father DENG AKOL. I asked John what this meant, and he said, my Grandfather brought ideas we had never before considered of challenging what we have always accepted, and instead doing more with others outside our tribe.