God of Generations

“God of Generations”

            Today we gather as a congregation to celebrate who we are as a family of faith.  We celebrate a generation of people that have had this particular church as their church home for fifty years or more, and we celebrate the next generation of youth that will confirm their faith and officially become a part of this particular church’s membership.  Today is a day where we celebrate various generations of God’s people as we remember the church is created by all of God’s children and each part of the body is valuable.  Whether you have been a member fifty years, one day or somewhere between, this is God’s church and all are equally important.

             I don’t think I will catch anyone off guard when I say this, but when we look around, we are definitely a congregation closer to the fifty year membership side than we are to the one day membership side.  Our body is aging and we have named over and over again that we would like to see our church filled with children once again.  As I pondered who we are as a church and who we are on this specific day, the story of Abraham and Sarah came to mind.   A great spiritual practice is to find scripture passages that speak to where you are in a particular time of your life or a particular situation of your life. 

            So, let’s take a minute to be Abraham and Sarah.  Abraham and Sarah want nothing more than to be parents, but Sarah is barren.  They are devout, faithful people.  They love God, they feel they have listened to God, and yet, they have no offspring.  They wonder how God plans to use them, how this promise God made with them will ever come into being because they are getting old.  And then, messengers come to Abraham to share the good news that the time has finally come for them to have a child.  Now?  Really?  But we are so old!  Sarah is in the background but listening to the conversation and when she hears the news her only response is to laugh.  Who are these men that they bring such preposterous news?  They obviously have no grip on reality.  Sarah and Abraham are too old to have children, end of story. 

            Are we too old to have children?  Are we too tired to engage the next generation?  Are we too set in our traditions and ways to allow a fertile soil of creativity to grow that will engage a younger generation?  Are we making ourselves barren? 

            Sarah and Abraham have accepted their fate in life.  They are too old and have been barren for so long that that is the life they have resigned to accept.  News of any thing else seems impossible and yet God desires to be present with them and calls them to be parents.  Sarah and Abraham could have resisted, they could have just kept laughing and ignored this message that the time had finally come for them to be parents.  But despite all the odds against them, they chose to engage the impossible and became parents. 

            Engaging the impossible changed everything for them.  Once they were husband and wife, now they are mom and dad.  Once they just had to take care of each other, now they have a baby to feed, to protect, to nurture and to love.  Once they moved through life growing older, now they have meaning and purpose and joy and new found energy.  How many grandparents or great grandparents say they love having the grandbaby for a visit.  They can play and spoil them rotten and then give them back to mom and dad.  Well, Abraham and Sarah were the mom and dad, they had to do this on their own. 

            Are we truly ready to engage the impossible?  If we are, we have to be ready for change.  Life cannot be the same if we are going to leave barrenness and become fertile soil for a congregation to grow.  The way is not going to be easy as we have been learning these past few years.  But there is promise.  For Abraham and Sarah, family means everything to them.  As it does to Jesus.  In the second passage today, Jesus’ mother and brother want to speak to him and he responds:   “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  We are a spiritual family, together all of us. 

            That was one of the greatest gifts to me as a young person, knowing I had a church family to be a part of.  I had other adults in my life that I could talk with, that mentored me, that were role models of faith and discipleship.  Each generation of the church is essential to the other.  Do we think of ourselves here in this place as grandparents and aunts and uncles to the next generation?  Not just our own family but the full family of faith? 

            A few weeks ago, the youth group watched the Disney movie- Lilo and Stitch.  There were several scenes in this movie that spoke volumes to me.  Lilo is on her bed, crying, and she says to Stitch, her pet alien, that they are a broken family.  See, Lilo has no parents, it’s just her and her sister and the social services want to take her away from her sister.  Abraham and Sarah had no children, Lilo has no parents.  They are both a broken family.  As the movie continues – the Hawaiian word for family is shared and defined – family means no one is left behind.  No one is left behind. 

            As a body of Christ here in this place, are we just a community that gathers to worship or are we a family, a family where no one is left behind?  I share this because just this past week I pulled out my notes from the church growth conference I attended two years ago and these words jumped right out at me:  :  “We live and we die together, the good and bad, we never give up on anybody, we are with them to the very end.” 

            We never give up on anybody, we are with them to the very end.  Can this particular body of faith live into this statement?  Are we ready for the challenge?  Are we ready to be Abraham and Sarah and embrace the next generation that we confirm this day? 

            Today, we welcome three young people into adult membership of the church.  In baptism they have been members of God’s family, but today, they affirm their faith for themselves.   As they become full members of the church, the session of this church is going to work on ways to create fertile soil so the spiritual gifts of these young people as well as the other youth of the church will be given the opportunity to grow and flourish.  For this is not the church of one generation or the other.  This is God’s church and together we are one family where each has a place and a purpose and a ministry in serving our loving Creator.  Today, and next week, and the week after we say yes to new life and new possibilities.  Amen.

culture of adaptability

I do not take credit for this reflection - I have received it through 1001 worshipping communities of the PC(USA) - I wish to share in dialogue how we can be God's people in a new day and age.

New missions can become irrelevant in just 10 years from when they begin.  The would around us is changing and continues to change at a rapid rate.  The ministry, service, action, and how we communicate, must change every year.  Last year's great thing is just one new technology away from being irrelevant.  The church, as a group of people, often seems to adjust very slowly to the world.  By the time the latest and greatest technique for going into the community is being taught, that community has already changed and that technique no longer applies.

We cannot accurately predict future trends and what the new realities of our community will be, but we can begin to teach adaptability to the people who join a new mission.  Adaptability is love.  Loving a child must be expressed differently when the child is 1 year old compared to when that child is 21.  We adapt because we love.

Reflection:
what defines your community of faith?
What ministry, program, or activities would be hard for you to stop doing?

Action:
Schedule a time with your key ministry leaders each year to evaluate your ministry program.  Ask: Why should we continue X,Y, Z ministry?

Frozen - Easter Sermon

“ A Time to Love”

            Through the season of Lent, my sermon series was based on Ecclesiastes:  a time for everything under the heavens.  Today is a time to Love.  What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!  What wondrous love is this That caused the Lord of bliss  To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul, When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,  Beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside His crown for my soul for my soul,  To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing;   Who is the great I AM,   While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing, And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;  I’ll sing His love for me,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,

Disney really has this concept of giving one’s life for another all figured out.  From the Jungle Book to the newest Blockbuster success of Frozen, a character within the movie is willing to sacrifice his or her life out of love for another.  People make sacrifices all the time for one another.  A sibling might donate a kidney or bone marrow for the other.  A parent will go without to make sure the children have enough.  Some people go to great lengths to change cultural norms, such as the civil rights movement, and the labor movement.  People sacrifice their jobs in order to take a stand on what they consider just.  Sometimes just speaking out can turn the tide against you.  This very day, Christians are gathering in various parts of the world, taking great risk to gather in worship, taking great risk that they could be arrested or even killed for their faith.  This inner most being within us, deep within our soul, this love that we have for others, can compel us to sacrifice ourselves for those that we love, for those that we believe deserve better, for a God that calls us to share sacred love with the greater world. 

Now, if you are one of the handful of people in the world that have not yet seen the Disney movie Frozen, you need to borrow someone’s children or grandchildren and watch it.  In fact, I have two little girls that you can watch it with anytime you want.  I’ve only seen it about four times now, and I just can’t help but see the Easter story in it.  Just a quick summary:  there are two sisters, one sister was born with powers to make snow and ice.  The two sisters loved playing with each other until one day, the older sister accidently struck the younger sister with her powers.  In order to keep the younger sister safe, the parents keep the two girls apart.  The younger sister longs for days when they played together and never forgets the love she has for her. 

The day comes for the older sister to become Queen and the two sisters are finally united again.  The older sister keeps her distance but the younger sister does not know why.  She does not know that her older sister has these powers.  During the crowning ceremony, the older sisters powers let loose and she freezes the kingdom.  Out of desperation she runs away.  But the younger sister loves her too much to lose her again.  She goes to great lengths to find her sister and tries to convince her it will be alright.  The older sister is too frightened and again her power gets out of control and she blasts her younger sister with her powers.  This time it strikes her in the heart.  The younger sister begins to freeze, and eventually she will turn to ice and die.  The only way to break the powers is through an act of true love.  Now, because of the stereotype that true love must be between a man and a woman, she seeks out the man that she believes is her true love.  When this proves to be false, she does not know what to do, but desperately tries to find another man, a friend that she has made on her adventure to find her older sister.  As she is trying to seek him out, she realizes her older sister is in grave danger and is about to be killed.  She flings herself between her sister and the man that is trying to kill her and, in that very moment, turns to ice.  Her unconditional love for her sister becomes an act of sacrifice as she gives of herself to save the other.  

An act of true love is what it takes to break the powers of her frozen heart and in her death comes her new life.  She thaws and the sisters are finally able to be in relationship with each other.  Now, I just can’t help but think of this story as us humans, being the older sister.  We have this powers and sometimes they just get out of control.  We can do great harm with them as well as great good.  We struggle with how to use them, not wanting to cause harm but sometimes the harm happens.  We have the powers to travel into outer space, we have powers to create smart phones, we have powers to turn oil into gas so we can drive our cars, but we also have pollution and rampant disease and intense poverty, and war. 

Our God refuses to give up on us.  God is love, and the sacred love of God goes to any and all extremes to get our attention and let us know that no matter what, we should not be separated from God.  Our scriptures tell us that God spoke through prophets, that God spoke through priests, that God spoke through kings and queens, and that God spoke through God’s incarnational presence made known in the life of Jesus Christ.  Just like the younger sister refusing to give up on her sister, God too seeks us out to let us know that nothing should stand between us.  Even the lyrics to the song between the two sisters reflects how God calls out to us –

The younger sister shares: You don't have to protect me I'm not afraid Please don't shut me out again,   Please don't slam the door You don't have to keep your distance anymore
'Cause for the first time in forever, I finally understand For the first time in forever,
We can fix this hand in hand, We can head down this mountain together,
You don't have to live in fear, Cause for the first time in forever, I will be right here
And the older sister speaks of our human condition - : I know You mean well, but leave me be
Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free, Just stay away and you'll be safe from me
And the moment of truth is spoken by the younger sister – I can hear God saying this to us this very day: You've kind of set off an eternal winter... everywhere.  Or Global warming, or war, or a culture of consumerism and greed. 
And then the older sister, analyzing her reality - : Oh I'm such a fool, I can't be free! : No escape from the storm inside of me!  I can’t control the curse!
And then the younger sister – God speaking to us : We’ll reverse the storm you’ve made.   Don’t panic   We’ll make the sun shine bright.   We can face this thing together: And everything will be all right...
            The hope of the Easter story is that we humans have God on our side.  As a people of faith, we are called to live into the Resurrection story, the story that God sacrificed God’s very self out of no other reason than love.  A love so deep, a love so divine, a love that caused God to create us in the first place, a love that holds no limits and a love that when we listen and respond and face this world we live in hand in hand with God, we can stop the storms that surround us and we can make the light of God’s love shine bright.  If nothing else, Easter is story of hope, a story of hope that proclaims that with all the negative awful things of this world, God is at work, God brings forth hope, reconciliation, and resurrection by renewing life all around us.   

            The Good News is – we do not need a Disney movie to help us pretend that life can be a better place, that love will thaw a frozen heart.  We have the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand, daily, in this world in which we live and we are called to be the body of the resurrected Christ as we seek ways in which we can use our God given powers in redeeming God’s creation.  Amen.