Church
growth language changes from decade to decade and some times even from year to
year. A few years ago, the talk was all about moving from maintenance to
mission. You’d hear that particular phrase used for just about everything. We
need more money in the budget to move from maintenance to mission. We need more
people to move from maintenance to mission. We need a dynamic rector who can
move us from maintenance to mission.
But you know what
I’ve discovered with the parishes I’ve served for the last fourteen years, including
this one? That stuff doesn’t matter. You don’t really need any of that stuff.
What we all really need is to grow closer and deeper in our relationship with
God. People and places that do that are growing. And, those people and places
grow naturally and sustainably because the people in the church recognize what
to do to share their faith, to welcome others, and to serve others. Whether a
church starts out with twenty-two people on Sunday morning, or two hundred
twenty-two, growing deeper and closer to God means growth will happen because
people want to be there.
Today’s gospel
speaks to moving closer, and deeper in our relationship with God and helps us
understand why doing so challenges us at our deepest levels. We are challenged by
letting go of our preconceived notions about how things should be and letting
God show us God’s way of being.
In
last week’s gospel, the beginning of this week’s story, Jesus read the
scripture in the synagogue. He announced that the scripture he read had been
fulfilled. And it was obvious Jesus meant he
was the fulfillment of that scripture. Jesus called people to rethink how they
thought of the Messiah. And, Jesus called people to enter a deeper and closer relationship
with God in the form of himself, Jesus the Christ.
This
week the scripture picks up again with the ending sentence from last week: “Jesus
began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing.’”[1]
What happens after that is Jesus’ answer to the question “What shall we do?” and
no one likes the answer. I suspect most of us don’t like some of the
answers we get from Jesus.
The underlying
assumption, of course, is that things always change with Jesus, and we can never stay the same with him. But, for those of us who
are unwilling or unable to change, the question becomes this. “What am I
willing to give up to stay the same?” Because, to stay the same, we have to let go of where we want to get
to in the future.
If we continue to
maintain only what we have, we make God hostage to our own desires. We make God
hostage to our need for maintaining things as they are, rather than moving into
the future God wants for us. We make God hostage by asking God to care for
those of us who are already here instead of opening the doors to those who are
hungry for what we have here. We make God hostage to renewing only us and
forgetting about those who have never had the opportunity to be renewed. We make God hostage by
settling for security rather than risk
gaining the blessing of the Spirit for our future.[2]
We
so often expect things to happen in a certain way. Most of us want to serve
God, but only in an advisory capacity.[3] And
this too makes God hostage to our desires and wants. We have to be willing to
say, “Please God, advise me. And when I
try to advise you, please tell me to
shut up!”
God
is using this time to call us closer and deeper to God’s self. God is using
this time for all of us to become more closely the people God created us to be.
This is when we begin to think about a future with God that is exciting and new
and graced by the Spirit. This is when we are willing to try the new and be
curious and lively and expectant about what things will happen in the future.
If
we fail to do this, we will make God hostage in the same way as the people in
Jesus’ hometown. The people in Jesus’ hometown had difficulty believing God
might be working in a hometown boy they knew. Who did Jesus think he was,
anyway? And maybe, (Can I say this?), some of you are struggling with the idea
that one small woman is kickin’ butt to bring us all closer to God. So instead
of wondering about me, join Jesus in what he wants to do here.
The members of
Jesus’ hometown expected the ordinary from him. They knew him. We expect the
ordinary. You know each other, and by now most of you know me.
I challenge us all
to grow closer and deeper to God this Lent. Ash Wednesday is only 10 days away.
Be here during Lent. Come to church. Sing and listen to the words of those
unfamiliar Lenten hymns. What might God be saying to you? Come on Sunday
mornings at 9:30 am to Christian Education during Lent. Experience scripture in
a new way: Grow, Sing, and Eat the Bible! And come on Wednesday nights for Soup,
Salad, and Forgiveness. Jesus told us to forgive, but he didn’t tell us how. Come
and learn how.
We
can do this together. We can live into God’s love because God’s love will
sustain us and inspire us to a vibrant future. We will truly become all God is
calling us to be for one another, for Resurrection, for Oklahoma City, and for
the world.
Come Holy Spirit
and blow into us your vibrant and living Word: Jesus the Christ. In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
The
Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2016
[1]
Luke 4:21 (NRSV)
[2]
With thanks for ideas from Bratcher, Dennis. The Christian Resource Institute. http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cepiphany4nt.html
Accessed 27 January 2007.
[3]
“Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory
capacity.”--Adrian Rogers (September 12, 1931 – November 15, 2005, president of
the Southern Baptist Convention for three terms.
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