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A Congregation Of The "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." - Gracie Allen |
From September 17, 2006 Easter has come. But right now only heaven knows. When the women arrive on the scene early that Sunday morning, all they know is that their beloved Jesus was crucified, taken down, and entombed. All the women know is that their Jesus is dead. As dead as the hope he had ignited in them. Gone is their marvelous Jesus. Gone, too, are all those hopes, all those dreams of stepping into the future with Jesus. A future that, before the cross anyway, seemed big and bright. Journeying with Jesus was like that. Whether Jesus was deep in conversation with them, or whether the two Marys listened in while he addressed a crowd, whether he was laying healing hands on someone or laying bare the shortcomings of the Pharisees, Jesus always made right now feel more spacious and substantial than yesterday. And tomorrow? With Jesus, looking toward tomorrow was like facing east just before dawn; with Jesus, you knew you could count on tomorrow's boldness. And yet it was more than that. The longer you were with him the more you could see that with Jesus something different kept happening; the future didn't just get bright, it expanded. Both Marys noticed this. Jesus' reputation increased, no doubt about that. Each time a circle gathered around him, it included more people than the time before. Ask any of his followers and they would say the same thing: even the land itself seemed to grow as Jesus went about sharing the kingdom life with this new village and then that new city. Now as wonderful as all this promise-filled growth was, what was more remarkable was what couldn't be quantified. Even if you thought it impossible, love today would be bigger tomorrow. You could count on that. Compassion and courage, too, even if you weren't quite sure how that growth happened. Just when you thought that you understood Jesus completely, the next day you would discover that there was something more to what he was saying about God, about how to live, about how to care for one another, about who to reach out to. Everything with Jesus seemed to just spread out and keep going, like the sun's rays at daybreak. It's not that everything was perfect and always worked out. The delicious meal they thought would be waiting for them at sundown would sometimes wind up being just a thin, tasteless soup. Or the road they were walking from here to there occasionally turned out to be impassable after a sudden downpour. Sometimes someone got bossy and another turned whiney and someone else couldn't be relied upon; right then the bigness of the future seemed a far off thing. But it never failed; every time things felt stalled or like they might even be going backwards or going dark, people's spirits would shift and like the sun suddenly breaking through a sky full of clouds, a bright opening would present itself and the adventure would begin anew, better - somehow - than before. Until now. The wide open future the women had grown to expect narrowed down hard and fast when Jesus was arrested. It narrowed yet again when he was beaten by the Romans. And when he died his horrible death, that incredible future Jesus had held out closed down around them all like some awful inky sea swallowing them whole. Three days ago everything turned black and nothing, nothing would ever change that. And now there was the hard work, the important work, of preparing Jesus' body for burial. As the two Marys approached the tomb before dawn, suddenly the earth began to shake. Later they would say that the future broke free in the quaking, the same kind of future Jesus had shown them, a future more vast and glorious than any they could have imagined. The angel at the tomb had been the first to show them that future. "Do not be afraid," he implored. "I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.'" And immediately the two Marys raced toward Galilee, raced toward the future, toward that place where the angel said Jesus would be waiting, where Jesus would once again open up God's infinite horizon. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Soon after taking my first church, I discovered that my ministry lacked something. Sure I had schooling and experience and a burning desire to serve. But the one thing I really needed, the one thing that would have made everything work, I just didn't have. I did not have a crystal ball; I could not see into the future. A crystal ball would have made all the difference. I could have foreseen disasters and helped avert them. I could have spied those potholes in advance and steered the congregation around them. What losses could I have helped folks anticipate. Even as recently as this week, a crystal ball would have been helpful. I could have peered in on Monday afternoon and seen the Fellowship Hall at daybreak on Saturday. I could have passed this information along to the folks organizing everything and taken all the guess work out of getting ready. Think how handy a crystal ball would be at budget crafting time. Or in deciding how many new hymnals to order. Think about all the good a crystal ball could do at the Council level; one good look and we'd know everything we needed to know to guarantee our bright future. But I don't have a crystal ball. All I have to work with is the present. That's all any of us have. But what I do have makes a big difference. What I do have is the present and my certain belief that even as he walks alongside us, Christ also inhabits the future, and from there Christ continually beckons us to join him. And it's not just any future Christ calls us to. In fact, it's the opposite of "the same ol' same ol.'" It is a brighter future, a wider future, a deeper, broader, richer, more dynamic and more inclusive and more remarkable future than any we could fashion for ourselves. I'm certain of this. Not because I can see what lies ahead but because I know that's been the case my whole life. Every step of the way on my journey with Christ, he has drawn me into a future far more expansive than any I could have conjured up. In my ministry with you, my limitation is that I have no crystal ball. I cannot see exactly where Christ is leading us. I cannot see the future he prepares for us. But my unshakable conviction in the goodness of this future is my strength. I have no doubt but that you and I are being called to step forward in faith to join the Christ who has gone ahead and is getting so many things ready--people, opportunities, resources, and more. No pastor can help a church recapture its past and anyone who promises otherwise is misguided. And any pastor whose goal it is to maintain the present, no matter how wonderful the present may be, is a pastor who is dangerous. Because trying to hold on to the present is impossible. Past and present, all we can do is enjoy their blessings, receive their gifts, and then continue on Christ's way. Because Christian community, like discipleship, takes us on a journey rather than leads us to a fixed destination. Remember the lesson of the Transfiguration? Peter, James, and John wanted to build little mountaintop houses for Moses and Elijah when they appeared that day Jesus' robes turned their brilliant white. Jesus admonished them and reminded them that this moment, as splendid and rare as it was, could not be captured and contained. After worship this morning, we will be gathering to hear the Council's report on leadership and to hear their recommendations related to the leadership needs of the church. Just as none of us could have foreseen the loss of two church Presidents in 2005, when we met as a church to suspend portions of the by-laws so that leadership could be provided none of us anticipated that the task of moving forward would lead not to easy solutions but to some hard questions. Recognizing that I don't have a crystal ball, it IS my responsibility to help prepare us to live into God's future. Which is why, even with my supreme confidence in our collective future, I have had to say to the Council and now to you that we are not enough ready for the future Christ is preparing for us. Yes, our future is bright. Yes, it is glorious. And we are not enough ready for it. And by we, I do mean we. Not just Ann and Phil, not just the members of the council, not just those who currently serve on committees and boards. As a church we are not enough ready to welcome the fullness of God's future. We are ready, more than ready, to embrace whoever walks in the door. We are ready, more than ready, to fold each newcomer into the life of this church that love so clearly has built. We are also ready when it comes to agreeing to disagree. Our capacity to embrace a diversity of people is mirrored in our willingness to embrace a diversity of viewpoints, theological and otherwise. Christ is building our future on this present gift, as well. We are ready too for God's future in that we have a desire to make a difference. And do. We mobilize quickly and generously when needs near and far present themselves. Christ's future isn't entirely hidden; it is revealing itself more with each passing week. Building upon the strength of United Church's ability to love and serve, we have an abundance of new members and newcomers whose energy, talents, and shared sense of calling are enabling Christ's future to unfold here far more rapidly than any of us anticipated. Christ has so much to work with here. And what joy it must give him to shape our future because so much is possible at UCP. And yet as your pastor, as someone with responsibility for helping you live into the future Christ is preparing for us, I am concerned about how we organize ourselves and how we function as a body. As growing church, a church with the substantial future that this church has, we must begin now to function with greater and greater complexity. We can no longer afford to function as we have organizationally, an approach that has been rather informal and which has relied on a core group of leaders to manage most of our affairs. As we grow in number, so too will our need for a strong, workable structure that enables more of us to share more of our gifts. This structure is something we must begin building now, not later. There are at least seven sermons for me to preach on this. Our congregational meeting today opens the door for congregation-wide conversation not just about which officers will be nominated for 2007 (a legitimate need) but about what it will require from all of us to have the structure we need to accommodate the growth (numeric, spiritual, missional) that awaits us. This is an exciting time to be part of this church. As I have said to some of you, it is a little like watching time-lapse photography. You know. The seed unfurls underground, sends up a tender shoot, and then before your eyes there is one leaf, then two, then buds, then flowers. By Christ's love at work in us, we are being propelled toward growth that we cannot yet fathom even as we witness its miracle. Our part is so small, really. And yet so critical. We have everything Christ needs: we have love, we have openness, we have a willingness to serve and the capacity to do that with joy and good humor. What we lack is so small. And yet so critical. We need a way to be the church together so that the future Christ is building can stand steady, strong, and sure. Like the women at the tomb, where we stand this very moment opens onto something far more glorious than any of us could ever imagine for ourselves. The Risen Christ, even as he is with us, has gone up ahead. And now it falls to us take him at his word, and to go on ahead, too. Amen. ©
Rev. Karen Winkel |
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Promises
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