October 26, 2008:  WHAT I DO WON’T REALLY MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE
Deuteronomy 34:1-2; Matthew 22:34-40; Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17    
Eileen Parfrey -- Springwater Presbyterian Church

          There was some good news about the PCUSA this week.  The news wasn’t in the media.  It was something I experienced at the presbytery’s Transformation Conference:  there is a future for the Presbyterian Church.  Kathy, Bob, and Renate attended the Saturday event, and I hope they experienced the same thing.  That there is a future for mainline churches comes as news to many people, but there is a caveat.  Just what that future looks like will be decided one congregation, one context, at a time. That means us. We get to decide.  Which is what makes today’s texts appropriate for what the Presbyterian worship planning calendar designates as “Reformation Sunday.”  On Reformation Sunday, we celebrate “The church reformed, always being reformed, under the Word of God.” The church of the past is not the church of the future.  Never has been.
          Moses’ death notice in Deuteronomy is a nice way to observe Reformation Sunday and to end Springwater’s Mission Month, in which we’ve heard fellow-members witness to how their faith influences their daily life.  Any facts about Moses’ life only make the obituary in order to show their impact on Israel’s future and how Israel’s future reflects Moses’ leadership.  It’s a future that extends even to us, but we’re the kind of survivors who do more than just passively receive the fruits of his leadership.  If we’re survivors, we stand in Moses’ shoes to pass on our leadership to the future.  Our leadership consists of conducting our daily lives as acts of faith in God.  It’s a leadership that takes Jesus at his word, that loving God cannot be separated from loving our neighbor (faith is personal but never private).  Our leadership embraces the freedom inherent in knowing that God never asks us to do what we aren’t equipped to do.  That knows we already have all we need to face what lays before us. 
          I keep remembering Mary Kirby’s witness from two weeks ago.  Mary said, “God must know I’ve got so much going on in my life that I can only respond to what’s in front of my face.”  Mary’s response to what God puts in front of her face is simply doing the best she can with what she’s got, where she’s at.  Mary can’t save the world, but then, she doesn’t need to.  Both Mary’s witness two weeks ago, and Carol Sturman’s last week, are examples of integrity (knowing who we are) and authenticity (acting like it). 
          We don’t get to participate in the future, but we assure that there will be one through the leadership of our witness.  When we act authentically, out of our integrity, our leadership continues into the future, just as it did for Moses, just as it does for Mary and Almon Shibley, Sarah Bates, Elison Lewellen, Harold Horner, Bill and Ed and Gilbert Shearer, Ken and Winnie, Everett and Margaret, Narcissa, Homer, Elwin.  Because we continue the faithful leadership of these saints, I am convinced of God’s promise to the Presbyterian Church in general and Springwater in particular, that there is a future.  Even if we’re not a part of it, we assure the reality of this future by living out of our integrity and authenticity, and our willingness to let others experience theirs.
            We know that both death and taxes are inevitable.  Humans acknowledge those inevitabilities and prepare for the orderly transition of what they value by writing a Last Will and Testament.  Customarily, that document focuses on the disposition of wealth—money, valuables, property, business.  But our real wealth can’t be measured in bank statements nor is it conveyed by legal documents.  We pass on the faith portions of our estates, whether we do it consciously or not, by writing a Last Will and Testament with our lives.  We do that both individually and corporately by our lives of faith.   
          Doesn’t that make you wonder what Springwater’s would be?  It makes me want to be conscious of the legacy we leave.  But being conscious about that, being intentional about what we leave behind, presupposes some important understandings.  Before we know where we’re going, we need to know who we really are.  According to the folks at the Transformation Conference, being able to articulate who we think we are and who we think God is, is only important for those congregations wishing to move into a vital, important, attracting ministry that lives on into the future.  This “who do we think we are?” conversation is the corporate equivalent of the witness we’ve been hearing from members for the last couple of weeks.  Let me pose this question to you.  It’s almost inconceivable to me to think of Springwater Presbyterian without this jewel of a building, but if Goat Mountain blew and we lost the building, how would we worship? How would we be church?  Would anyone miss us if Springwater Presbyterian disappeared from the face of the earth?  What do we wish to have continued and remembered about us?
            We’re going to break up into groups of three and wonder what we want to leave behind of Springwater Presbyterian Church.  Here are your questions:

[Gather the answers]  As we dream our leadership into the future, we need to assure ourselves that God doesn’t ask us to stop being who we are.  God only asks us to become more like who we were created to be.  That’s not “death,” that’s resurrection.  And above all else, we are resurrection people.

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