The African American Lectionary

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STEWARDSHIP (VOLUNTEERISM—TITHING YOUR TIME)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

“Wake Up Everybody”

(performed by John Legend, featuring The Roots, Common & Melanie Fiona)

Wake up everybody
No more sleepin’ in bed
No more backward thinkin’
Time for thinkin’ ahead

The world has changed
So very much
From what it used to be
There is so much hatred
War and poverty, oh yeah

Wake up, all the teachers
Time to teach a new way
Maybe then they’ll listen
To what’cha have to say

‘Cause they’re the ones who’s coming up
And the world is in their hands
When you teach the children
Teach ‘em the very best you can

The world won’t get no better
If we just let it be, oh no
The world won’t get no better
We gotta change it, yeah,
Just you and me

Wake up, all the doctors
Make the old people well
They’re the ones who suffer
And who catch all the hell

But they don’t have so very long
Before their Judgment Day
So wont’cha make them happy
Before they pass away

Wake up, all the builders
Time to build a new land
I know we can do it
If we all lend a hand

The only thing we have to do
Is put it in our minds
Surely things will work out
‘Cause they do every time

The world won’t get no better
If we just let it be, oh,
The world won’t get no better
We gotta change it, yeah,
Just you and me

It’s the God hour, the morning I wake up
Just for the breath of life I thank my maker
My mom say I come from hustlers and shakers
My mind builded on skyscrapers and acres

He said take us back to where we belong
I try to write a song as sweet as the Psalms
Though I am the type to bear arms and wear my heart on my sleeve
Even when I fail in God I believe

Read the days,
Weave through the maze and the seeds are so amazing
Feed them and raise them, seasons are aging
Earthquakes, wars, and rumors
I want us to get by but we more than consumers,

We more than shooters,
More than looters,
Created in his image,
So God live through us,
And even in his generation livin’ through computers
Only love, love, love can reboot us

Wake up, everybody
No more sleepin’ in bed
Wake up, everybody
Said I need a little help,
Can’t do it alone
Oh, need a little help, y’all
I need a little help, y’all, can’t do it alone

I need a little help, can’t do it alone,
No more sleepin’ in bed
Wake up everybody
Wake up everybody
Wake up everybody

Guest Writer for This Unit: Larry L. Enis is a doctoral candidate in New Testament studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary and an associate minister at Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Richmond, VA.

The unit you are viewing, Stewardship (Volunteerism—Tithing Your Time), is a compact unit. This means that it is not a complete commentary of the Scripture(s) selected for this day on the calendar, nor does it have a full, supporting cultural resource unit and worship unit. Instead, to enliven the imagination of preachers and teachers, we have provided a sermonic outline, songs, suggested books, and suggested articles, links, and videos. For additional information see Stewardship in the 2008, 2009, and 2010 archives of the Lectionary. 2011 is the first year that the African American Lectionary has posted compact units for moments on its liturgical calendar.

I. Description of the Liturgical Moment

A day designated for celebrating stewardship suggests that we, as creations of God, have been called and empowered by God to contribute to the work of God. The objective of this liturgical moment is to celebrate the significance of “good works”—works that benefit others first. Such works glorify God; that is, they demonstrate the goodness of God working through us. This moment is designed to encourage and challenge worshippers not just to reflect on ways they might make a positive difference in their environments, but to put those ways into practice—to “walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). It is designed to compel congregants to embrace their role as the hands of God on the earth, as recognizable extensions of God’s love, as conduits through which the Spirit of God may freely flow. This liturgical moment emphasizes the point that employment of “good works” is the consequence of a new life in Christ.

With this material as our backdrop, we provide a sermonic outline for Stewardship (Volunteerism—Tithing Your Time).

II. Stewardship (Volunteerism—Tithing Your Time): Sermonic Outline

A. Sermonic Focus Text: Ephesians 2:10 (New Revised Standard Version)

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

B. Possible Title(s)

i. Walking in Good Works

ii. Becoming a Difference-Maker

iii. Do Something!

C. Point of Exegetical Inquiry

In any text there can be several words or phrases that require significant exegetical inquiry. A significant term in Ephesians 2:10 is peripatéo. This term is commonly used to refer to one’s conduct, but means literally “to walk.” The NRSV translates the final clause of 2:10 as “to be our way of life,” thereby deviating, almost radically, from the Greek text. A more accurate translation of this final clause is “so that in them [i.e., the good works] we might walk.” The writer is encouraging recipients to walk in the good works which God has prepared beforehand. If the writer had wanted to communicate “way of life,” he could have done so more clearly. There are other terms he could have used, such as odos (“road” or “way”) and zoe (“life”), which are absent from this verse. What the writer aims to communicate is the importance of active participation in one’s efforts to lead a godly life—a Christian life characterized by “good works.”

The writer is compelling, urging, and challenging readers to do something, to move—to walk. A translation of peripatéo which emphasizes walking communicates a more specific call to action than the rendering found in the NRSV. The writer’s repeated use of peripatéo throughout Ephesians bolsters this point. For instance, in 4:1 he admonishes listeners to “walk worthy” of the call to which they have been called. Congregants are encouraged to “walk in love” (5:5) and to “walk as children of light” (5:8). They are commanded to see with care how they walk (5:15). Thus, in light of its literary context, Ephesians 2:10 is clearly calling readers not just to be about good works, but to do them—to walk in them.

III. Introduction

Born a slave in about 1798, Betsy Stockton was manumitted by her master in 1817, and subsequently admitted as a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey. Given her expressed desire to do missionary work, she was soon thereafter commissioned by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, becoming the first single African American woman sent overseas as a missionary. On November 22, 1822, she and a team comprised of all males set sail from New Haven, Connecticut on a five-month voyage to Hawaii. A master of the Word of God and of the English language, she selflessly devoted her time and her talent to “good works”—to the spiritual, educational, and social advancement of the disinherited. She used her talents, skills, and expertise to start a school where she taught English and Hawaiian. She was motivated not by self-exaltation but by service—by a genuine desire to make a positive difference in the lives of others. By availing herself for the betterment of others, she epitomized what it means to lead a Christian life—a life committed to making its presence felt. Betsy didn’t just contemplate good works; she walked in them.

We, too, as children of God, have a responsibility to use what God has given us to make a positive difference in the lives of others. As God’s handiwork, we too have been called by God to embody the spirit of Christ—a spirit characterized by love, righteousness, and selflessness. Like Betsy, we have a responsibility to impact our environments, to effect change, to walk in good works.

IV. Moves/Points

Move/Point One – This text addresses our identity (who we are).

Knowledge of who we are controls how we live our lives, the decisions we make, and the risks we take. To understand our identity is also critical for social interaction and our reaction to how society responds to us.

a. We are God’s masterpiece;

b. We are recipients of God’s grace; and

c. As such, we are the beloved of God.

Move 2/Point Two – This text addresses our purpose (why we exist).

a. We exist to do good works;

b. We exist to extend grace to others; and

c. We exist to be extensions of God’s love on earth.

Move 3/Point Three – This text addresses our assignment (what we should do).

a. We are to walk in good works;

b. We are to show grace to others; and

c. We are to walk in love.

V. Celebration

We celebrate the fact that, despite our circumstances, we have been blessed to be a blessing for others in some way. We celebrate that we are not just recipients of God’s love but instruments through which God’s love, God’s goodness, and God’s grace can flow. Our lives are better and more fulfilling—individually and collectively—if we are committed to serving others, if we embody the spirit of Christ, if we walk in good works. Thanks be to God for the privilege of serving others. Thanks be to God for the opportunity to lift the image of God in the earth in how we live and how we give of ourselves. Thanks be to God that we have learned not to just talk the talk but to walk the walk.

VI. Illustration

The Service Elevator
Mohammed Yunus, a businessman from Bangladesh, was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2006. Yunus is convinced that the way to bring peace to the world is by eradicating poverty. So, Yunus makes loans to people who are in poverty. As a consequence of his conviction, he loans money to poor people so that they can operate their own businesses and escape poverty; he has served his way to the top.

A few years ago I was in an African hotel, and my room was on the top floor. The sister who was showing me how to get to my room said I had to use the service elevator because no other elevator was working. That’s what Muhammad Yunus has done. He has recognized that in this life if you want to reach the top, you have to take the service elevator. That’s what’s going to take you up. You don’t have to connive. You don’t have to scheme. You don’t have to stab anybody in the back. The way to reach the top is through the service elevator.

—Frederick Douglas Haynes, III, Dallas, Texas

This illustration is taken from the Sermon Illustrations section of The African American Lectionary. See this section for additional illustrations that you may wish to use in presenting a sermon for this moment on the liturgical calendar.

VII. Sounds and Sights in This Passage

Sounds:	Praise—Recipients of this letter celebrating the fact that they are in a position to be a blessing in the lives of others; “Mm mm” and “That’s right”—The response of congregants after being informed or reminded of their identity as God’s masterpiece and their call to walk in good works.
Sights:	Confidence—congregants’ facial expressions after hearing that they were created for the very purpose of doing good works; Contemplation—the facial expressions of other congregants as they ponder ways they might make a greater impact in their environments.

VIII. Videos, Audio, and/or Interactive Media

Video by Rev. Otis Moss III: How to talk about stewardship during tough times. Online location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X3C-dwX_dY
Video on the stewardship efforts of The Church of The Redeemed of the Lord. Online location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mUG5Xdh0OU
“National Day of Service in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” The next date is January 16, 2012. Online location: http://mlkday.gov accessed 4 April 2011
“A ‘Wake Up’ Call” from John Legend.” Online location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJNkGk38hPk&feature=fvwrel accessed 4 April 2011

IX. Books to Assist in Preparing Sermons or Bible Studies Related to Stewardship (Volunteerism—Tithing Your Time)

	Barth, Markus. Ephesians 1–3: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974.
	Heil, John Paul. Ephesians: Empowerment to Walk in Love for the Unity of All in Christ. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.
	Martin, Ralph P. Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Preaching and Teaching). Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1991.
	Jones, Clifford A. From Proclamation to Practice: A Unique African American Approach to Stewardship. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1993.
	Amerson, Melvin. Stewardship in African-American Churches: A New Paradigm. Nashville, TN: Discipleship Resources, 2006.
	Hollies, Linda H. Living Bountifully! The Blessing of Responsible Stewardship. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2005

X. Links to Helpful Websites

Deboer, Clara Merritt. “Blacks and the American Missionary Association.” Online location:
ttp://www.ucc.org/about-us/hidden-histories/blacks-and-the-american.html accessed 1 April 2011
Sutton, Charyn D. “The Black Church.” Online location:
http://www.energizeinc.com/art/apas.html accessed 3 April 2011
“Church Volunteers: How Churches Can Find and Keep Volunteers.” Essortment: Your Source for Knowledge. Online location:
http://www.essortment.com/church-volunteers-churches-can-keep-volunteers-44031.html accessed 3 April 2011
A Collection of Essays on Christian stewardship in the Black Church. Online location:
http://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709291.html
An online resource finding volunteer opportunities in your community. Online location:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/

XI. Songs to Accompany This Sermon

A. Spirituals or Traditional Songs

This Little Light of Mine.
Take My Life, and Let It Be Consecrated. By Frances R. Havergal. Arr. by H. A. Malan
Rule of Life. By John Wesley. Music by Edward Bonnemere
What Shall I Render? By Margaret Pleasant Douroux
Here I Am. By Nolan Williams, Jr.

B. Songs for Choirs, Ensembles, or Praise Teams

My Offering. By Nolan Williams, Jr.
All That I Have. By Andraé Crouch
My Life Is Available to You. By Timothy Clifton
Never Too Busy. By Brent Jones. For solo

C. Anthem

God Made Our Hands. By T. Miller. Arr. by Hawley Ades

D. Modern Songs (Written between 2000–2010)

Go. By Leon Patillo

Give Till It Feels Good. By Glenn Evavold
Things We Leave Behind. By Michael Card
Wake Up Everybody. By Victor Carstarphen, Gene Mcfadden, and John Whitehead
I Want to Be Like Jesus. By The Anointed Pace Sisters
Well Done. By Deitrick Haddon

E. Offertory Song or Instrumental

Bring a Gift of Love. By Mary Kay Bottens
You Can’t Beat God Giving. By Doris Akers
Offertory. By John Ness Beck. For SATB with optional string quartet

F. Song or Instrumental for the Period of Prayer

Spirit of the Living God. By Daniel Iverson

G. Sermonic Selection

Only What You Do for Christ Will Last. By Raymond Raspberry
May the Work I’ve Done Speak for Me. By Sullivan S. Pugh.

H. Invitational Song or Instrumental

Jesus Is Calling. By Fanny J. Crosby. Tune, (CALLING TODAY), by George C. Stebbins
What Shall I Render? By Margaret Pleasant Douroux

XII. Notes for Select Songs