Created for Good Works
A few years ago, my Mom had a streak going of rude flight attendants and bad flights. Now, Julie Cannon is about the most patient person you will ever meet, but these flights were really testing her. It was the kind of experience where she knew she was being treated more like a number than a person.
The worst example was on one trip, my mom was trying to get some much needed sleep when one of the attendants decided that this would be an appropriate time to break apart the ice bag that had frozen into one solid chunk, which she accomplished by slamming the bag against the ground repeatedly with my mom trying to sleep a few feet away.
Well, finally, one day the streak ended. My mother boarded an airplane and was greeted by one of the kindest flight attendants she had ever met. She spoke warmly to her. She looked her in the eyes when they talked and somehow made her feel more like a person, rather than just another number sitting in a seat.
Though it’s hard to quantify how much this meant to her, When I asked my Mom about it this week, she told me that this flight attendant made the atmosphere in the cabin feel like a sunny day.
Those small acts on the part of that flight attendant really made an impression on my mom - so much so that she wanted to say thank you. Not knowing if she would get a chance to thank her properly at the end of the flight, my mom searched around her bag for a piece of paper, but all she could come up with was an airplane napkin. So she hastily scribbled the flight attendant a note of thanks and handed her the napkin as she walked off the plane.
Now, the story doesn't end there, but I’m going to wait to finish it because for now, what I want you to reflect on is this - that even a small act like looking somebody in the eye when you’re talking to them can make a world of difference in somebody’s life.
In that moment, this flight attendant’s was exactly what my mom needed. I would go as far as to say that God created that flight attendant that day, for the purpose of treating my mom with kindness.
That probably seems like a very grand statement, and in some ways it is. But I also believe that it is absolutely true. And I believe this to be the case today because our reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians more or less declares as much.
Listen to what he says in his letter. Paul writes,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Those verses are at the heart of the Lutheran faith. “You have been saved by grace through faith” means that beyond all shadow of a doubt, your salvation is not dependent on how good a person your are (or aren’t).
In fact, you are saved, just by believing and trusting in that very promise.
And there is so much more I could say about that, but what I want to focus on today is the next part. (quote) “For we are what he has made us,” Paul writes, “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
In the first breath Paul says that doing good works can’t save you. Then in the second, Paul says that God created you for the purpose of doing good works.
It’s a bit of a paradox - like seeing “Chicago Cubs” and “World Series” in the same sentence.
And the truth is, you’ll never be able to put those two ideas together if you think that life is some kind of cosmic test to get into heaven. In fact, what Paul tells the Ephesians and what he is telling us today, is the opposite - we were created in baptism for good works. Or in other words, our goal on earth should be to make this life a better place for everybody to live. Our Goal is not salvation, because salvation has already been achieved on the cross.
The old cliche applies here. “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.” It’s about making this life better for the people around us.
Our John text puts it another way - For God so loved the world...God loves the world. He didn't create this earth and all that’s in it because he’s trying to scoot you onto a better place - God created the world - he died for the world - because he loves it.
If that’s true, as Paul suggests, then I think what we can safely say is this: that God cares so much about the world, that his purpose for creating you is to go out and make it a brighter place.
I can’t stress that enough, because so often we have this idea that the sole reason Jesus died on the cross was so that we could go to heaven. But in reality it’s about so much more than that! Life on earth is not a test for the fate of our souls.
That’s why every Sunday in church we have this long list of prayers. We don’t just pray for people’s souls, we pray for the earth. We pray for people who are poor and people who are oppressed. We pray for the sick to be healed. We pray for all these things because God cares about what happens here and now. God created you to help fix some of these problems.
Thinking back on that flight attendant who was kind to my mom, I couldn't help but think of Paul’s words. “For we are what God has made us - created in Christ Jesus for good works.”
This is what we were created for. This is what Christ died for - that our good works can bring light into the lives of those around us.
I promised I would get back to the story…so here it is.
About a month so after this plane incident, I was chatting with this girl named Kirstin, who I had been dating a few months, and her best friend Kari, when Kari seemed to remember something.
She asked me if I had an aunt or another relative named “Julie Cannon.” I thought that was really weird because, as I explained to her, that “no, I don’t have an aunt named Julie, because my mom is named Julie.”
Kari, who is a flight attendant, started to explain to us that about a month ago, a woman on a flight she had been working had handed her a napkin. And on that napkin this passenger had written her the nicest thank-you note that she had ever received - and that woman was named Julie Cannon.
What you know now, and what we figured out that day, was that Kari, my wife’s best friend from college, was my mom’s flight attendant. And of course, when I asked my Mom the random question, if she ever handed a flight attendant named Kari a thank-you napkin on an airplane, she just teared up and said “God works in mysterious ways!” Indeed he does!
Sometimes, our modern sensibilities won’t allow us to believe that God is in any way involved in our day-to-day lives. We get up, we go to work, we go to school, we come home, we sleep - and so we develop this idea that God is a cosmic clock maker that isn’t active in the daily ticking of our lives.
Stories like these are reminders to us that God’s love for the world extends to even the smallest things. They are reminders that God created us for these moments of kindness - and that he cares what happens to his people in ways that are both global, and intimately personal.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are indeed saved by grace through faith. But you if you are saved, you are saved for the purpose of reflecting the love of God on the people around you. It’s our mission statement, right? We reflect Christ in message and action.
Go and do likewise.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
