First Sunday in Lent, Year A
The Reverend Lois Keen
Key scripture Matthew 4:1-11
On the day after the Vestry Retreat, in which we cast a vision for Grace Church five years from now, this is what I preached, distilling down some of the high points of that vision:
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Fairy tales don’t tell children dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children dragons can be killed.”
Satan, that great serpent, the dragon, tempted Jesus in the desert. It was a mighty temptation, hitting on all Jesus’s desires for the world – an end to poverty, the people following God with all their heart, someone to save them, a messiah. Was it him? To it all, Jesus said “no”. He killed the dragon of temptation, for that day. Even though it came back, being a reptile, having grown a new body part for the temptation in the garden of Gethsemane, the dragon was dead, for now.
We have a dragon to face. Over the past few weeks, since the annual meeting on January 13th, I have shared with you the challenges Grace church faces in becoming a viable congregation once again. On Ash Wednesday I told you that this is not a financial crisis but a spiritual one and that only a spiritual response will answer it.
I also told you that we put ashes on our foreheads to recall our mortality but also to recall the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus, who after his temptation, trials and crucifixion, was raised from the dead to give us a sure and certain hope for the future.
Yesterday your Vestry met in retreat with me. We have imagined our future. We have cast a vision for Grace Church five years from now. We would not do that if we did not think that we would be here in five years to see that vision come to life. Synthesizing all our separate visions, here is part of the vision we cast for Grace Church.
In five years Grace Church will be a center within Norwalk and the surrounding locale for spiritual exploration, spiritual growth, spiritual transformation and spiritual redemption. We will be continually seeking ways to have the Gospel refine our worship and ministries to be of service to all regardless of where they may find themselves in their spiritual journeys with Christ.
We will be reaching out beyond the confines of our sameness, our pains, our wants and needs to join in communion with those not like us who seek the kingdom of heaven.
To that end, we envision a separate entity, a Center for Religious Inquiry, for those not interested in church but desiring to explore their deep yearnings for and spiritual questions about God and the Absolute.
We will partner with the diocese to find ways to use the church building to realize revenue to offset the building operating and maintenance costs, without jeopardizing our not for profit status. We will have a staff person who recruits rentals, manages the traffic of rentals and other building uses in accord with our Gospel objectives, who is here for all major events and who knows the ins and outs of the heating, the crazy alarm boxes, the leaking downstairs and all our other building quirks, and who works in conjunction with a vibrant, energetic property committee committed to the Gospel imperatives in our vision.
We want our buildings and grounds to be in used every day. We dream of being a cultural center for the arts, a place where children are present all the time, and where storytellers, puppeteers, mimes, actors in search for a place to read plays in front of an audience, music students in search for a recital hall, short time music camps, Good Friday camps for children, and people looking just for a place to rest or pray for a few moments will find a home.
Our nave will be transformed to be able to be used for a multiplicity of purposes – from meals to blood drives. That means movable furniture.
We envision partnering with St. Paul’s on the Green for ministry with the Haitian Anglican/Episcopalian community, and with Iglesia Betania housed at Christ Church for ministry with the Latinos of Norwalk.
In five years there will be three services on Sundays, one of them at 7:00 p.m. in the evangelical style of worship. They will serve more than 300 persons among them.
Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day are “must-attend” services, even for non-churched people in our culture. We envision having up to seven more of these kinds of community services, including a coming of age program and annual ceremony for youth in this community, especially boys, but some girls as well, who tend to look to gangs to fill this gap in our society. We envision strengthening and enhancing our relationship with the Haitian Baptist and Temple of Deliverance congregations, in conjunction with Families and Children’s Agency and Covenant to Care for Children to provide this service.
We will have an active Sunday School of 50 or more children, with 25 teachers serving on rotation, engaging in stimulating, creative education under the direction of a full time Coordinator of Christian Education. There will be a strong component of stewardship in the children’s formation, year round, focusing on time and talent as well as treasure, exploring outreach and the community.
We have lots more specific details to this vision, and that is a work in progress. Meanwhile, three things are going to happen now, or soon. When we leased parking spaces to Virgin Airlines, we felt we had to put up Grace Church Only signs to protect those parking spaces. Now that Virgin Airlines is gone, we will begin work this week to design and erect more welcoming signs for our parking lot. We are also working on plans to add a ramp into the altar area so that people who are differently abled can have access to altar ministries and the choir.
A third action began today. To help us come closer together, so that we might better know our need of one another and be encouraged in worship by one another, we have retired the last three pews on either side of the central aisle, until the day when we need them again.
Your vestry is committed to pouring our life and our resources into this community for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In five years we will be a congregation energized and motivated because we find that we are truly needed and useful at whatever age. And in five years, everyone in Norwalk will know that there is only one Grace Episcopal Church in Norwalk, and where it is, and to what denomination we belong.
God has given us all we need to do what God wants us to do in this place and time. Our building, our grounds, our off street parking, a strong, committed vestry, vibrant worship, location, dreams, and a congregation of people who make no hierarchical class or economic distinction between one another – these are some of our strengths.
Although we operate a deficit budget, we have substantial financial resources for the mission of the church in this community. We also have strong community ties through those who use our buildings already – two A.A. groups, a support group for manic depressive persons, Literacy Volunteers, Families and Children’s Agency, a Girl Scout troop, and two additional churches who are very different from us and from one another – and through our relationship with Covenant to Care for Children.
We are not starting out with nothing. We are starting with much. But that dragon, Satan, is ever crouching at the door to tempt us into anxiety, fear of change, fear of people not like us, fear of want and deprivation, fear of failure, and my all time favorite, our favorite pew being already occupied on Sunday morning.
We must become more prayerful, then, to stand up to him. Lent is the perfect time to develop habits of a spiritual rule of life, of prayer, study, healthy habits and an attention to the hurts and hopes of the world, especially of the people around us as well as one another.
Take this time to fast at least once a day, eating less at two meals a day, and not making up for it with the third, in order to leave a little space for God to make a home in you. Take on a discipline of study. Saul Haffner will join us a week from this Wednesday, at 6:00 in the evening, for studies in the Old Testament. You know Saul; you don’t want to miss him, and people you know may want to experience him. Light supper – soup and bread – at 6:00. Education for children in the Joseph and Exodus stories will also be provided.
And, even though it has been pointed out to me that the cartoons in the Lenten booklets we gave you before Ash Wednesday include some unfortunate stereotypes, I commend them to your use to help develop the habit of keeping the rest of the world before your eyes.
A strong spiritual life of prayer, fasting, and study will go a long way to see us through the times of temptation to give up. But the best years of Grace Church’s life are not behind you – they are yet to come.
And we all learned a valuable lesson from fairy tales when we were children: dragons can be killed, even that great snake, Satan.
BEING COMMUNITY
Showing posts with label Sermons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sermons. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Epiphany 3, Year A
Epiphany 3, Year A
The Rev. Lois Keen
Key Scriptures: Isaiah 9:1-4, Matthew 4:12-23
This is the sermon I preached after returning from a week of intensive continuing education at my seminary, Seabury-Western in Evanston, Illinois. Before the sermon, I had the congregation complete a brief survey which would reveal what they believe are our greatest strengths. I also had them write down the answer to this question: What are the things you do in your every day life that make you feel good about yourself.
The result of the survey, which I shared the following week, revealed that those in attendance on this Sunday find our building, our parking lot, and our leadership are our greatest strengths.
The Sermon:
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can’t tell where to find them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home wagging their tails behind them.
Two weeks ago I spent a week at my old seminary in the Chicago area, taking two intensive classes. Last week someone asked, “When are we going to hear what you learned?”
So today I tell you some of what I learned.
Evangelism is people telling their stories, to people who sit long enough to listen to them, and who see God’s holy hand in people’s lives. That evangelism is as much about listening as it is about preaching, and that the Word became flesh for relationships, not for creeds!
I learned that congregational development is the means by which we create spaces and places to hear another person’s story, and that the more stories we hear, the more opportunities we have to see God.
I learned that stewardship is the joyful reaction to having our stories hears. The outpouring of money and gifts is a direct response to having our stories heard as holy, our reaction to God’s action in our lives.
I learned that if you’ve died, you can be resurrected, but the problem comes when you’re dead and think you’re still alive. That churches must learn to embrace death as the most essential ingredient to resurrection, letting go of things that people no longer want to do, or for which the church has no one willing to do it. The alternative is to pay someone to do it.
I learned that churches pour most of their energy and resources into trying to fix the things at which they stink, the things they don’t do well. I learned that we must stop that! That we must focus our energy instead on the things that we do well, and for which there are passionate people to do them.
Relational things are more valuable than the functional. People things attract people. Functional things – buildings, grounds, finances, programs do not. People are attracted to churches that give themselves away. Get out of this building. Walk around the neighborhood – you the parishioners, walk around the neighborhood, get to know the people, find out their hopes and their hurts. That’s where your strengths are to be directed.
And have fun! Find the playful side of the congregation. Capitalize on it. Use it to address the hopes and dreams and hurts of the neighborhood.
I learned this: Little Bo Peep is NOT the Good Shepherd.
Most churches are Bo Peep churches, waiting for the sheep to come home wagging their tails behind them. That is not what the church is for. The church is meant to be the Good Shepherd.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus goes out walking and calls people to follow him. He does not found a church. He does not have any programs, except the example of his own life. He knows the hopes and hurts of the people intimately. He listens to them and he teaches and preaches and heals. This is what churches are for.
That’s what I learned while I was away.
I learned that God gives us everything we need, to do what God wants us to do in a particular place and time. And if we think something we lack is something we need, something that is important to us, but there is no one who is passionate about it, pray that God will send you someone who IS passionate about it.
The church we studied, All Saints Chicago, was dead fifteen years ago. The bishop sent the Rev. Bonnie Perry as priest in charge to close them. He met with the twenty remaining people and told them that they would be closing. Someone stood up and said, “I guess it’s true, then. We’re dead.”
That was the salvation of All Saints. Because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, but it’s darn hard to raise a dead church that thinks it’s alive.
The one thing All Saints had was a food pantry. Once a week they would hand out bags of food on the front steps of the church. Even if they were going to die, they would keep doing that as long as they could. Bonnie Perry helped them build on that food pantry. She connected it to a Eucharist for anyone who wanted to stay after the food was handed out. It made sense – the church feeding the poor, Jesus feeding the church and the poor.
One night it was bitter cold, and the people were lined up down the sidewalk. Someone said, “Can’t we at least offer them some coffee?” So they handed out cups of coffee. That grew into a soup kitchen. Now All Saints feeds 150 people and hands out 1,000 pounds of food every week.
All Saints made alliances with the neighborhood, with the alderman and other politicians and with a medical facility nearby. They formed a 501.c.3 charity and held a 5k run. The proceeds were split half and half, between their food program and the medical facility. In the beginning they raised like $500. I forget how many thousands of dollars they now raise because they made an alliance with the neighborhood and addressed its hopes and hurts.
The church is the one organization that does not exist for the benefit of its members, but for the next stranger or guest who walks through their doors. But it is not enough to sit and wait for that guest, like Bo Peep. We are to be as the Good shepherd, going out of our doors and walking among our neighbors, knocking on doors and listening to and addressing the hopes and hurts of our neighbors.
Last week I had a dream:
I dreamed I was at a new job. It was in a plant nursery. The nursery was owned by an old man. It was located in the middle of a huge estate, with gardens and woodlands and lawns for acres and acres. The building in which I worked was like huge greenhouse. A walkway led up to it, with small shrubs all along it on either side. Inside the entrance, the walkway continued, and so did the plantings. I had a desk job. I think I was supposed to be the receptionist. I had hardly begun to work there when it was time for lunch. A party broke out. Everyone was milling around. I didn't know what to do. I realized I’d better find my own lunch before lunchtime was over. I found a cafeteria line, which was supposed to be closed, but I went in anyway and there was food and no one minded that I helped myself.
I took my lunch back to my desk, to work while I ate. But there was a young man at my desk. He looked a little bored. I was scared. I thought I had already lost my job because I had stayed too long away from my desk.
But the party was still going on. I didn’t understand. I asked someone why this was. And he said, ”We have a benevolent boss. He loves us very much. He doesn’t care when we get our work done, just so long as we are having fun.”
I woke up.
I realized this was no ordinary dream. This was a vision of the kingdom of God. It was a vision of The Church. It was a vision FOR this church, for Grace Church Norwalk.
It said, Focus on strengths. Go with your passions. Have fun. And trust that God has already given us everything we need to begin to address the hopes and hurts of our part of Norwalk.
The exercise I had you do at the beginning of this sermon is the first step to becoming a church that is the Good Shepherd. We are going to focus only on those things we do well. God has given us everything we need to become what he most needs us to be to address the hopes and hurts of Norwalk, Connecticut. We will find those things in our strengths, and in the things we enjoy doing. So we are going to spend ourselves claiming and expanding and offering our strengths. And we’re only going to do those things about which we are passionate.
People are attracted to churches that give themselves away. In losing our life, in giving ourselves and Grace Church away, we and Grace will find ourselves. Even now, the Good Shepherd goes before us, both as individuals and as a congregation, and invites us into a future for which God has already prepared us. We still do not know what that future is. We are asked to say “Yes” to the invitation without knowing where we are going. The question is, do you truly believe that God loves you totally, loves your neighbor, provides all you need, desires you to use your passions to answer the hopes and hurts of others, and wants you to have fun doing it? That is the question.
The Rev. Lois Keen
Key Scriptures: Isaiah 9:1-4, Matthew 4:12-23
This is the sermon I preached after returning from a week of intensive continuing education at my seminary, Seabury-Western in Evanston, Illinois. Before the sermon, I had the congregation complete a brief survey which would reveal what they believe are our greatest strengths. I also had them write down the answer to this question: What are the things you do in your every day life that make you feel good about yourself.
The result of the survey, which I shared the following week, revealed that those in attendance on this Sunday find our building, our parking lot, and our leadership are our greatest strengths.
The Sermon:
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can’t tell where to find them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home wagging their tails behind them.
Two weeks ago I spent a week at my old seminary in the Chicago area, taking two intensive classes. Last week someone asked, “When are we going to hear what you learned?”
So today I tell you some of what I learned.
Evangelism is people telling their stories, to people who sit long enough to listen to them, and who see God’s holy hand in people’s lives. That evangelism is as much about listening as it is about preaching, and that the Word became flesh for relationships, not for creeds!
I learned that congregational development is the means by which we create spaces and places to hear another person’s story, and that the more stories we hear, the more opportunities we have to see God.
I learned that stewardship is the joyful reaction to having our stories hears. The outpouring of money and gifts is a direct response to having our stories heard as holy, our reaction to God’s action in our lives.
I learned that if you’ve died, you can be resurrected, but the problem comes when you’re dead and think you’re still alive. That churches must learn to embrace death as the most essential ingredient to resurrection, letting go of things that people no longer want to do, or for which the church has no one willing to do it. The alternative is to pay someone to do it.
I learned that churches pour most of their energy and resources into trying to fix the things at which they stink, the things they don’t do well. I learned that we must stop that! That we must focus our energy instead on the things that we do well, and for which there are passionate people to do them.
Relational things are more valuable than the functional. People things attract people. Functional things – buildings, grounds, finances, programs do not. People are attracted to churches that give themselves away. Get out of this building. Walk around the neighborhood – you the parishioners, walk around the neighborhood, get to know the people, find out their hopes and their hurts. That’s where your strengths are to be directed.
And have fun! Find the playful side of the congregation. Capitalize on it. Use it to address the hopes and dreams and hurts of the neighborhood.
I learned this: Little Bo Peep is NOT the Good Shepherd.
Most churches are Bo Peep churches, waiting for the sheep to come home wagging their tails behind them. That is not what the church is for. The church is meant to be the Good Shepherd.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus goes out walking and calls people to follow him. He does not found a church. He does not have any programs, except the example of his own life. He knows the hopes and hurts of the people intimately. He listens to them and he teaches and preaches and heals. This is what churches are for.
That’s what I learned while I was away.
I learned that God gives us everything we need, to do what God wants us to do in a particular place and time. And if we think something we lack is something we need, something that is important to us, but there is no one who is passionate about it, pray that God will send you someone who IS passionate about it.
The church we studied, All Saints Chicago, was dead fifteen years ago. The bishop sent the Rev. Bonnie Perry as priest in charge to close them. He met with the twenty remaining people and told them that they would be closing. Someone stood up and said, “I guess it’s true, then. We’re dead.”
That was the salvation of All Saints. Because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, but it’s darn hard to raise a dead church that thinks it’s alive.
The one thing All Saints had was a food pantry. Once a week they would hand out bags of food on the front steps of the church. Even if they were going to die, they would keep doing that as long as they could. Bonnie Perry helped them build on that food pantry. She connected it to a Eucharist for anyone who wanted to stay after the food was handed out. It made sense – the church feeding the poor, Jesus feeding the church and the poor.
One night it was bitter cold, and the people were lined up down the sidewalk. Someone said, “Can’t we at least offer them some coffee?” So they handed out cups of coffee. That grew into a soup kitchen. Now All Saints feeds 150 people and hands out 1,000 pounds of food every week.
All Saints made alliances with the neighborhood, with the alderman and other politicians and with a medical facility nearby. They formed a 501.c.3 charity and held a 5k run. The proceeds were split half and half, between their food program and the medical facility. In the beginning they raised like $500. I forget how many thousands of dollars they now raise because they made an alliance with the neighborhood and addressed its hopes and hurts.
The church is the one organization that does not exist for the benefit of its members, but for the next stranger or guest who walks through their doors. But it is not enough to sit and wait for that guest, like Bo Peep. We are to be as the Good shepherd, going out of our doors and walking among our neighbors, knocking on doors and listening to and addressing the hopes and hurts of our neighbors.
Last week I had a dream:
I dreamed I was at a new job. It was in a plant nursery. The nursery was owned by an old man. It was located in the middle of a huge estate, with gardens and woodlands and lawns for acres and acres. The building in which I worked was like huge greenhouse. A walkway led up to it, with small shrubs all along it on either side. Inside the entrance, the walkway continued, and so did the plantings. I had a desk job. I think I was supposed to be the receptionist. I had hardly begun to work there when it was time for lunch. A party broke out. Everyone was milling around. I didn't know what to do. I realized I’d better find my own lunch before lunchtime was over. I found a cafeteria line, which was supposed to be closed, but I went in anyway and there was food and no one minded that I helped myself.
I took my lunch back to my desk, to work while I ate. But there was a young man at my desk. He looked a little bored. I was scared. I thought I had already lost my job because I had stayed too long away from my desk.
But the party was still going on. I didn’t understand. I asked someone why this was. And he said, ”We have a benevolent boss. He loves us very much. He doesn’t care when we get our work done, just so long as we are having fun.”
I woke up.
I realized this was no ordinary dream. This was a vision of the kingdom of God. It was a vision of The Church. It was a vision FOR this church, for Grace Church Norwalk.
It said, Focus on strengths. Go with your passions. Have fun. And trust that God has already given us everything we need to begin to address the hopes and hurts of our part of Norwalk.
The exercise I had you do at the beginning of this sermon is the first step to becoming a church that is the Good Shepherd. We are going to focus only on those things we do well. God has given us everything we need to become what he most needs us to be to address the hopes and hurts of Norwalk, Connecticut. We will find those things in our strengths, and in the things we enjoy doing. So we are going to spend ourselves claiming and expanding and offering our strengths. And we’re only going to do those things about which we are passionate.
People are attracted to churches that give themselves away. In losing our life, in giving ourselves and Grace Church away, we and Grace will find ourselves. Even now, the Good Shepherd goes before us, both as individuals and as a congregation, and invites us into a future for which God has already prepared us. We still do not know what that future is. We are asked to say “Yes” to the invitation without knowing where we are going. The question is, do you truly believe that God loves you totally, loves your neighbor, provides all you need, desires you to use your passions to answer the hopes and hurts of others, and wants you to have fun doing it? That is the question.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Exile And Return
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost,Year C
Proper 25: Jeremiah 14: (1-6) 7-10, 19-22
by Jeffri Harre
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
It has been a few years since I last stood before you in this place. Although I made the painful decision to leave Grace Church, you were often on my mind and always in my prayers. I kept up with the goings on of the parish through my mother and a handful of friends. Over and over again I was asked, most often relayed by Mom, “When are you coming back?”Again and again I would say, “This was an Exodus and not a Babylonian Exile.” I guess I was wrong, wasn’t I.
And so, like a handful of others, the exile has returned. It seems appropriate that Jeremiah, who lived through the time of the Babylonian Exile, is one of the lectionary readings for my first sermon after my return.
When I first read the passage from Jeremiah in preparation for this morning, one of the first things that popped into my head was the demented Greek chorus from Edward Gorey’s “Inanimate Tragedy:”
"Death and Distraction!" said the Pins and Needles. "Destruction and Debauchery!"
"Duplicity and Desolation!" said the Needles and Pins. "Dissolution and Despair!"
Well, you get the idea. They go on like this throughout the entire poem. Jeremiah’s lamentations, judgments against the nations of the region, and oracles of destruction run through most of his book. As with the pins and needles, I find myself wanting to shout at Jeremiah, “Enough already! Shut up!”
Yet there are days when I walk into this church and feel like those who went to the well and found it dry. There are days when I gather with others of this parish and hear that many of us feel like those who covered their heads because the ground was parched and cracked. It is easy to fall into despair, to wail and gnash our teeth.
Which brings me to the second thing that came to mind as I read the lectionary for today—a verse from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah that was one of two scripture passages used as the foundation for the work of a conference I helped plan and implement not long after I began working in the Office of Children’s Ministries and Christian Education at the Episcopal Church Center:
Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
(Jeremiah 31:15)
More lamentations from the exiles and those left behind. At which point not only do I want to tell Jeremiah, “Enough already!” but myself as well. Weeping and mourning are necessary, and even healthy, but at some point we have to move on. In Education for Ministry we use a call and response after each person has shared their Spiritual Autobiography:
For what has been,
Thanks be to God.
For what is,
Thanks be to God.
And for what will be,
Thanks be to God.
Remember where we have been, acknowledge where we are, and look forward to where we are going. For us here at Grace Church, we need to remember where we have been, because our experiences have changed us. And all of us have been changed—those who went into exile and returned and those who remained. We must acknowledge where we are, because if we do not, we cannot move forward, we will get mired in our lamentations over what has been. We absolutely must look forward to where we are going, because without a vision, we cannot build something new and different.
Jeremiah, for all his ranting and mourning, knows this. He works on the assumption that things will get better—he even buys a field while the Babylonians are besieging Jerusalem. If that isn’t optimism in the face of destruction, I don’t know what is! You can also see this hope if you continue reading past Rachel weeping for her children in Chapter 31. In the next verses God, through Jeremiah, offers hope to the people:
Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears;
for there is reward for your work,
says the Lord:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
there is hope for your future,
says the Lord;
your children shall come back to their own country.
(Jeremiah 31:16-17)
And some of us have returned. This is just one of the first steps in building something new. If we want Grace Church not only to survive, but to flourish, then we need a vision. I know some of you have been working diligently with Lois on a new vision. I want to encourage all of us to participate in that work. Part of my own vision for the church, and not just Grace Church, but the whole church, comes from the second piece of scripture that we used at the “Will Our Faith Have Children?” conference--the opening of the 54th chapter of Isaiah, which is also addressed to the people at the time of the Exile:
Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in travail:
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her that is married, says the Lord.
Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
hold not back, lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your descendants will posses the nations
and will people the desolate cities.
(Isaiah 54:1-3)
Enlarge the place of your tent. What an image. Make room for those who are coming and be ready to welcome them when they arrive.
Enlarging the tent takes resources. (You didn’t think I was going to get to Stewardship, did you?) You need to be able to buy new canvas, ropes, poles and tent pegs. You need to make a pattern for the new sections of the tent, cut them from the canvas and sew them to the existing tent. You need to erect the new poles, pound in the new pegs and make sure the original pegs are firmly in place, and you need to string and tighten the ropes to hold the tent up. That’s not just money, but people power as well. And as hard as that may be to envision given our financial situation, that’s the easy part.We must be ready, willing, and able to welcome folks when they arrive. As much as possible, treat them as if they are already members of our community. Greet them, sit with them, make sure they have everything they need to participate in the service, share the peace with them, and let them know you look forward to seeing them again. When they come a second time, treat them the same way. If fact, treat them, and each other, that way every time they come. Those who decide to join us will bring new gifts to the community, and we must be open and willing to accept those new gifts. Just as all of us have been changed by our experiences together and apart, so will we and they be changed by our experiences together.
Change is not easy, and we will often find ourselves turning to Jeremiah and his lamentations. But I hope that we will also turn to the words of hope and encouragement found in Jeremiah. Remember where we have been, acknowledge where we are, and look forward to where we are going.
For what has been,
Thanks be to God.
For what is,
Thanks be to God.
And for what will be,
Thanks be to God.
Let all God’s people say, “Amen!”
Proper 25: Jeremiah 14: (1-6) 7-10, 19-22
by Jeffri Harre
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
It has been a few years since I last stood before you in this place. Although I made the painful decision to leave Grace Church, you were often on my mind and always in my prayers. I kept up with the goings on of the parish through my mother and a handful of friends. Over and over again I was asked, most often relayed by Mom, “When are you coming back?”Again and again I would say, “This was an Exodus and not a Babylonian Exile.” I guess I was wrong, wasn’t I.
And so, like a handful of others, the exile has returned. It seems appropriate that Jeremiah, who lived through the time of the Babylonian Exile, is one of the lectionary readings for my first sermon after my return.
When I first read the passage from Jeremiah in preparation for this morning, one of the first things that popped into my head was the demented Greek chorus from Edward Gorey’s “Inanimate Tragedy:”
"Death and Distraction!" said the Pins and Needles. "Destruction and Debauchery!"
"Duplicity and Desolation!" said the Needles and Pins. "Dissolution and Despair!"
Well, you get the idea. They go on like this throughout the entire poem. Jeremiah’s lamentations, judgments against the nations of the region, and oracles of destruction run through most of his book. As with the pins and needles, I find myself wanting to shout at Jeremiah, “Enough already! Shut up!”
Yet there are days when I walk into this church and feel like those who went to the well and found it dry. There are days when I gather with others of this parish and hear that many of us feel like those who covered their heads because the ground was parched and cracked. It is easy to fall into despair, to wail and gnash our teeth.
Which brings me to the second thing that came to mind as I read the lectionary for today—a verse from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah that was one of two scripture passages used as the foundation for the work of a conference I helped plan and implement not long after I began working in the Office of Children’s Ministries and Christian Education at the Episcopal Church Center:
Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
(Jeremiah 31:15)
More lamentations from the exiles and those left behind. At which point not only do I want to tell Jeremiah, “Enough already!” but myself as well. Weeping and mourning are necessary, and even healthy, but at some point we have to move on. In Education for Ministry we use a call and response after each person has shared their Spiritual Autobiography:
For what has been,
Thanks be to God.
For what is,
Thanks be to God.
And for what will be,
Thanks be to God.
Remember where we have been, acknowledge where we are, and look forward to where we are going. For us here at Grace Church, we need to remember where we have been, because our experiences have changed us. And all of us have been changed—those who went into exile and returned and those who remained. We must acknowledge where we are, because if we do not, we cannot move forward, we will get mired in our lamentations over what has been. We absolutely must look forward to where we are going, because without a vision, we cannot build something new and different.
Jeremiah, for all his ranting and mourning, knows this. He works on the assumption that things will get better—he even buys a field while the Babylonians are besieging Jerusalem. If that isn’t optimism in the face of destruction, I don’t know what is! You can also see this hope if you continue reading past Rachel weeping for her children in Chapter 31. In the next verses God, through Jeremiah, offers hope to the people:
Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears;
for there is reward for your work,
says the Lord:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
there is hope for your future,
says the Lord;
your children shall come back to their own country.
(Jeremiah 31:16-17)
And some of us have returned. This is just one of the first steps in building something new. If we want Grace Church not only to survive, but to flourish, then we need a vision. I know some of you have been working diligently with Lois on a new vision. I want to encourage all of us to participate in that work. Part of my own vision for the church, and not just Grace Church, but the whole church, comes from the second piece of scripture that we used at the “Will Our Faith Have Children?” conference--the opening of the 54th chapter of Isaiah, which is also addressed to the people at the time of the Exile:
Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in travail:
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her that is married, says the Lord.
Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
hold not back, lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your descendants will posses the nations
and will people the desolate cities.
(Isaiah 54:1-3)
Enlarge the place of your tent. What an image. Make room for those who are coming and be ready to welcome them when they arrive.
Enlarging the tent takes resources. (You didn’t think I was going to get to Stewardship, did you?) You need to be able to buy new canvas, ropes, poles and tent pegs. You need to make a pattern for the new sections of the tent, cut them from the canvas and sew them to the existing tent. You need to erect the new poles, pound in the new pegs and make sure the original pegs are firmly in place, and you need to string and tighten the ropes to hold the tent up. That’s not just money, but people power as well. And as hard as that may be to envision given our financial situation, that’s the easy part.We must be ready, willing, and able to welcome folks when they arrive. As much as possible, treat them as if they are already members of our community. Greet them, sit with them, make sure they have everything they need to participate in the service, share the peace with them, and let them know you look forward to seeing them again. When they come a second time, treat them the same way. If fact, treat them, and each other, that way every time they come. Those who decide to join us will bring new gifts to the community, and we must be open and willing to accept those new gifts. Just as all of us have been changed by our experiences together and apart, so will we and they be changed by our experiences together.
Change is not easy, and we will often find ourselves turning to Jeremiah and his lamentations. But I hope that we will also turn to the words of hope and encouragement found in Jeremiah. Remember where we have been, acknowledge where we are, and look forward to where we are going.
For what has been,
Thanks be to God.
For what is,
Thanks be to God.
And for what will be,
Thanks be to God.
Let all God’s people say, “Amen!”
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