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December 5, 2004:
This is hope Sunday in Advent. Not what our furry friends do, hope is staying alert for what God will do next. Today Romans is about the consequence of our hope in Jesus Christ-that we are energized by getting along with each other. But what does John the Baptist have to do with hope? If anything, his is a severe hope-wild-eyed and pulpit-thumping-hope that requires truth-telling and willingness to change how we act. Hope which is the willing passivity I mentioned last week. Telling the truth about God and ourselves, knowing the consequence of truth-telling is not what is done by us or to us, but our participation in God's transforming work in and through us. Hope with skin on, hope that's more than lip service, hope that acts like it-against all other experience. Which is why we have the Romans passage today-it's the newness of our lives, beginning with our relationships. The burr under Paul's saddle, writing to the church in Rome, is still under the Church's saddle today. How can such a diverse bunch of people worship and work and learn together? The hip new phrase is "unity in diversity." For the church in Rome, the problem was Jews versus Gentiles. God's command to the chosen people had always been, "Do not to hang out with those outside the faith." Now, those former insiders and outsiders are compelled by mutual faith in Jesus Christ to come together to be Church. Surely this is some kind of joke. Does the Divine mind change? Paul's message was, "Yep-God wants you two to be and work in harmony together." Not "make them just like me," but united around that one thing: faith in Jesus Christ (and the rest is details). Unity as God's call, not homogeneity, not just-like-each-other. Unity and getting-along, imitating Jesus. Be united around Jesus but not necessarily the same. What does this have to do with hope? Presbytery hosted representatives from the denomination's Peace, Purity, Unity Commission. You might remember that when we ordain pastors, deacons, and elders we ask them to promise to work for the peace, purity, and unity of the church. It's a good promise, but in practice it's hard to maintain all three. Peace reigns when you can be united around what constitutes purity, but if peace is the only goal, purity can be sacrificed, and unity gets defined as "no contrary opinions." Peace, purity, and unity have had a rough go of it lately among Presbyterians, so the denomination formed the most diverse commission they could to talk about what unites us. One of the commissioners speaking to our presbytery, said the commission struggles to be expectant about God doing something new in the church, because the experience is so contrary. What keeps them going, through is, "We only discern (that is, figure out God's will) with brothers and sisters with whom we disagree." That's a new spin on peace, purity and unity! It's as if Paul, in the letter to the church in Rome, was right: you don't have to agree, but you do have to be united-around Christ. When I was called to Springwater, as part of the new pastor search process, the congregation wrote a document called the Church Information Form, to describe themselves and where they thought God was calling them. You wrote that Springwater represented a wide variety of spiritual perspectives, and the highest priority challenge was to continue the feeling of cohesiveness of family within this diverse group. Your challenge was to unite in mission (to be church together) when you didn't always agree on what that mission is. It has been interesting to read, five years later, this congregation's hopes for Springwater's mission. I've been looking at the answers you gave on the stewardship questionnaires. Tomorrow, session will see a list of your hopes. We won't do anything with that list until we pray into God's leading. But your answers are the beginning of planning for next year, the start of the Mission Study session has asked to begin in the spring. The diversity is not surprising. Some of you hoped for more mission and outreach. Some of you hoped for more Bible study and small groups. Others hoped for more youth activities, while others thought families already had too many demands. Some hoped Springwater would become a community resource for spiritual refreshment. Hearing your wide variety of hopes helps session discern God's leading to live into our witness of hope to the world. As Paul says, to make sure all the voices in the choir can blend in harmony. Each year since I have come here, I've talked at the annual meeting about my three-legged stool vision of the ministry of the church-worship, witness, service. Our youth group is attempting to form using that model. The congregation could learn from their experience. Each month they gather before the Taize service to build community as they eat together. After worship, the ministry moves to late-night bowling, and the kids share their witness as they invite friends to join in. At other times, the youth group gathers in service. Our job as a congregation is not just to take their example, helpful as it may be. Our job is also to lead them by example, as we gather in worship, as we build community in fellowship and fun, as we serve together in outreach, as we grow in our faith. We don't all do the same thing in the church, but in the spirit of hospitality and witness, we benefit from each other's hopes, respecting each other's gifts for a wide variety of ministry. This is Paul's choir blending in harmony again. Some of us are gifted in as teachers. Some are gifted as cleaners and landscapers and fixers. Some have differing musical gifts. Some are called to contemplative prayer and leading in spiritual formation. Some are called to the ministry of snacks or worship flowers or holding babies or driving people to appointments and calling to check in on the phone. Just as some people worship best with musical prayer rather than spoken prayer, others need visual prayer, such as the paper crane prayers for peace. For us to be expectant that God is doing something new even in Springwater, for us to unite around the mission of the people of God, we need faith nurture in both our corporate and individual lives. Without that nurture, mission becomes work and not witness, peace and purity are lost to the dis-unity of arguing over God's call. We need both-contemplative nurture and active witness. We don't all have to do the same thing the same way, but we can recognize and respect the differing gifts of others. The beauty of a church like Springwater is because we are small we see each other's differences, we make room for differences, and because we value each other, we learn from each other. Because our hope is in Christ, we are expectant (against
all experiences) that God is doing a new thing. That things will be
just and fair, that good will prosper and poor people will be helped.
Because we believe that God is trustworthy, we can participate in
God's uniting work by making room for each other. Not just "tolerating,"
we respect and value the gifts each of us brings to ministry. Living
in expectation, we understand that when one person is called to hunger
ministry, another can be called to a spiritual formation ministry-and
we will still be church together. In expectation, we understand that
God uses us to equip each other for ministry. God's ministry of hope
for the world. We might differ from each another about how to do it,
but we are committed to uniting and participating together in exhibiting
God's hope to the world. And that is hope with skin on. Hope in the
coming kingdom of God. Hope that God's will is being done. Hope that
God's kingdom is coming even here, even now. |