The best of the rest.

I'm on a theme.  You should probably read my last sermon and my post about St Cecilia of the Potato Jesus for this to be in context.

The sermon is about Simeon and Anna and the other post is about the woman who destroyed a fresco and created an internet meme.  (See.  Now aren't you interested enough to click the links?)

The temple was filled with priests.  Spain has lots of artists.

When Simeon and Anna give their declarations, they do so in a temple filled with people.  Holding up a baby and explaining that he is the Promised One is one of those things which tends to draw a crowd.  And, it is so interesting to me that this temple is filled with priests fulfilling their priestly obligations, and none of them speaks these words.  An old man wanders in at the direction of the Holy Spirit and the old widow-woman who had been praying in her own way for 70+ years are the ones prophesying.  God used these two people to make the good news known.  There were others in the same temple, others who were more qualified and better respected.  There were priests - including those who performed the purification rituals - who didn't mention the baby-king connection.  But, two elderly wanderers proudly and loudly shout out the good news.

And, what exactly makes a piece of religious art valuable?  Age, yes, but the last supper has been repaired so many times that some experts have even said that none of the original paint remains.  A painting is ultimately more valuable if it is beautiful.  

The problem is that we value the same things the world values.  This is especially true about people in ministry.  Are you attractive?  Great -that's super important to the Lord.  Are you charismatic?  Perfect - that's exactly what the Lord needs right now.

One friend who was a District Superintendent said that she used to do a long interview processes with congregations to hear what they were looking for in a pastor.  She said, "I never once heard anyone say they wanted someone who couldn't preach their way out of a bag, preferably a woman, preferably handicapped.  I would ask them, 'and would you like him to be taller than six feet or shorter."  They usually answered honestly that taller than six feet would be preferential.

And what is funny, is that God keeps calling all of these people who we don't want.  God keeps calling people with surnames much too inappropriate to put on church signs,  with not quite enough hair on their heads to keep people happy, and something else funny so that I'm not forced to write the painful reasons churches really use to reject people from ministries.

One of the reasons that I love Cecilia Jimenez so much, is that I see myself and my ministry in her painting.  After spending weeks with a local artist repainting the sets for the children's ministry at my college church, one grandmother asked me, "Why did you make it so pukey looking?"  That's the funny story.  I have some other stories of trying to do something in ministry and being rejected.  I can laugh at the "pukey" comment, but the rest just break my heart.  It's hard to be rejected by people for something God has called you to do.

And these are the heroes the Bible lifts up over and over again.  The shepherd-boy-king who became the adulterer-murderer-king who became the king known as a "man after God's own heart.  The prostitute who risked her life for the spies and helped the Jewish people capture her city.  The twelve bumbling blue-collar men who seem to always get the answer wrong and yet managed to spread the Good News all over the world.  These are the heroes that God lifts up over and over again.

These are the heroes we should be lifting up as well.  The ones who aren't really the best at anything, but they give all of their efforts to God in the knowledge that God has called us, and God will take care of the details.