As I read the scripture for this Sunday (Mark 1:14-20) I thought about how the disciples just “up and went.” These guys didn’t hesitate, but they dropped everything they had to go and serve. I’ll never forget what a member of a former church that I belonged to always said when I called to ask him to do something, “Whatever it is, the answer is yes!” – and that was before I even told him what it was. I believe that we have a few of those members ourselves at SSPC. Members of our choir and music program are much the same. It’s very rare that I get turned down when I ask for service to the church. If I do, it’s usually a very good reason why they are unable to say yes.
John Sergey is a snowbird from Pennsylvania that sings bass in our choir. He is the dad of Tanya Sergey, owner of A Moveable Feast. Thank you, John, for helping to lead hymns last Sunday! I’ve asked four members of our choir to sing “I Will Arise” – Alice Parker’s arrangement of this traditional American tune from Southern Harmony. Jan Maloof, Nancy Matthews, Tom Haughney, and John Sergey will sing at the 10:30 service. The main words of the refrain are:
I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in His arms,
in the arms of my dear Savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms.
While doing research on this hymn, I found that there were six verses. The last one struck me as I read it – perhaps this is the reason that we hesitate to serve. “I’m not good enough. I’ll just mess it up.” Service is important in the Christian life. Finding your gifts and talents and offering them in service is a holy sacrifice. The last verse quoted was this one:
Let not conscience make you linger, not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him.
We need Jesus. We need each other more than ever to do God’s work in the world. Jesus calling the disciples is a model for us about how to answer the call to service. I’ll have to say that SSPC is full of those who answer YES to their church and I am humbled to serve in such company. I want to take this opportunity to thank David Keen, who rescued our keyboard last week. The stand for it was about to fall apart from pushing it back and forth between the classroom and the tent at Frederica Academy. Several helped to load it in my car so that we could transport it to David’s home. Having helped with set up at the school, David knew what was needed to repair the stand and make it so it was easier to move the instrument. Just a couple of days later, he called me to let me know it was ready. Using quality materials, he repaired it beautifully. On Sunday, it was amazing to roll it easily back and forth. Thank you, David!
Our hymn of the day is Here I Am, Lord, hymn 69. It is a favorite of our congregation and rightly so. The quartet will lead us in singing Guide My Feet, hymn 741 for the introit.
Love & Gratitude,
Rhonda
