Enjoy one of the many great sermons from Sarah Hollar...
Year A, Proper 14
August 10, 2008
About a year ago, the vestry of St. Mark’s, living into their covenant to serve God and this body, noticed that we have some “facility issues.” The folk you raised up to guide this parish is an astute group, so it’s no surprise that they became aware of some “problems.”
To create a reasonable strategy and find thoughtful solutions, the vestry formed a Long Range Planning Committee, made up of the Junior Warden, the Building and Grounds chair, a former Senior Warden and Technology Liaison, a vestry member, a finance expert, our on-site electrician and others with a love for and a history with this site. Their charge was to address presenting concerns. Some committee members focused on our overcrowding at the 10:30 service. The church seats 125, if everyone is very still. We average 150 at this service and the number is creeping up. Some members were concerned with the lack of parking spaces, others noticed we had run out of room for hot dog Sunday and newcomer breakfasts. When the Bishop came, everyone had to pray hard for good weather because outside was the only venue that could serve us all. Personally, I was most interested in the women’s restroom. We only have two toilets and one’s designed for giants and the other for midgets. When all this was laid on the table, we started with quick fix plans. We’ll reconfigure the bathroom stalls. We’ll buy some used FEMA trailers. We’ll ask the Masons to lend us their parking lot. That one turned out to be the cheapest of all the plans. As we evaluated these options, we found more problems, more expenses. To put the trailers out of prominent view meant locating them behind the parish building, which meant new sewer lines, new water lines, electric lines and dealing with septic tank and run off issues.
It became apparent there was no easy fix for our situation. Every good idea had costly consequences and seemed to satisfy only short term needs. So, the Long Range Planning Committee went to vestry and said we need to be very deliberate and very sensible and we need to call in experts. We need to take our concerns to the whole body. The vestry agreed and, you will remember, in the fall we went through a series of parish meetings where folk sorted themselves out by their personal interests. The small groups prioritized facility needs that reflected who we are as a body and supported the ministries we feel called to serve. We turned those realistic, communal visions over to ADW Architects, a firm dedicated to preserving historic aesthetics and listening to church communities.
With plans being drafted, the Long Range Planning Committee turned to funding the solution and recommended a church capital campaign firm to the vestry. They settled on RSI because of their long history with church-only fundraising, but, more importantly, because of their commitment and focus on prayer. RSI said if you aren’t willing to begin, continue and end this process in prayer, we aren’t interested in working with you.
We thought, well, we know how to pray, we can do this. Our consultant arrived in April with these commands: Pray. Get me 33 team leaders. Pass out these notebooks. Do everything in them. Pray some more. We’ve been relentless in following these directions. My notebook, the “Pastor’s notebook” has been reviewed, thumbed, tabbed, highlighted. It’s on my desk, in the car, under my pillow. I’ve attended every assigned meeting, written every assigned document, had the conversations, gone through all the exercises. At the first April meeting, the consultant pointed out the “sermon” section of my notebook. He told me that in August, I’d be responsible for five specific messages. I said ummm hmmm! I didn’t have the heart to tell him. He was giving me material in April for me to preach on in August! He didn’t know. Bless his heart. He didn’t know that isn’t how God works in me. I so wish he did, but it’s just not God’s way with me. April for August! I’m on my knees Saturday the 9th for Sunday the 10th’s sermon. Please God, please Jesus, please Holy Spirit – now can you come, NOW?
I’ve been reading the proscribed material. I’ve been thinking about casting the big vision. But, in Kyros – that’s God’s time rather than Chronos, which is our time, the word I’m to proclaim finally came to me and here it is:
About 3-1/2 years ago, this congregation was in the middle of a major, somewhat painful transition. This parish was brought to a place where it had to remember who it had been, who it was now and who it wanted to become. The people of St. Mark’s prayed and shared and discerned and created its new mission statement. You said, “We, the body of St. Mark’s are about ‘Building community, Living the way of Christ.” This is a masterful mission statement. It is all about action. It is clear and direct and it is centered on what you do best and what we need to be about. I suspect the building community piece is a tribute to St. Mark’s heritage and is a recognition of our particular spiritual gift. People who come here and people who stay here know how to build community. We know how to welcome folk and invite them to full participation. We know when to embrace visitors and when to leave them in peace. We watch over one another’s children. We call when we miss seeing you. We’re getting better and better at this. We plan all sorts of event to build community. It’s easy for us. We do it well.
My sense is that the “Living the way of Christ” part of the mission came from a hope and a belief that we need to be more than a fellowship community. This half of the statement will be our challenge, our place to grow. To “live the way of Christ” means moving deeper into our faith and farther out into the world. To live the way of Christ requires more study, more outreach opportunities, more reflection on Christ’s words to us. And, here dear friends, is where our mission statement – who we say we are, who we want to become, and our master plan intersect. Thanks be to God, the new building campaign and living the way of Christ are in sync. And we know this is true because of the gospel passage we read this morning.
Yes! In God’s providence, the campaign sermon and appointed readings all come together! Remember the lesson? In the early, early morning, when it is still dark and misty, unclear and unnerving, the sea is wild and the wind is blowing hard. In this unease, Jesus comes to the disciples in a new, unexpected way. In a very strange, eerie, frightening way, Jesus comes to them and they aren’t sure how to react. Finally, they decide to move, to respond, to engage the something “new.” Peter says, if it is you, if it is really you and your will, tell me to come to you. Tell me to get out of the boat. Call me from the place I know, the security I want all around me. Call me to the unknown, the place you want me, the place by your side. Jesus says, “Come!” Get out of the boat. Leave the sure thing behind and come to me! Disciple, you can’t follow me, you can’t serve me from the shore, or from the confines of the structure you built to keep you easy. Get out of the boat! Come to a new place – that is my way!
So, Peter lives the way of Christ. He steps out into, onto something new. And it is amazing and wonderful and freeing and exhilarating and then it’s not. It gets really scary. All the normal, usual conditions show themselves and Peter notices and he reacts and he starts to sink and lose himself in the anxieties of the world. And, in his fear and ghastly predicament, he turns to his only sure hope. “Lord, save me!”
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him. Jesus immediately caught him! He said, “Why did you doubt?” I do not call my followers to disaster! I do not call you into the abyss to let you be swallowed up. I will not forsake you. I will not let you be ruined or drowned or lost! I call you out of the boat to something better, surer, stronger, greater. Do not be afraid. He held Peter up and then he walked his beloved one back to the others and together they went on. The wind ceased, the sea calmed and they carried their work farther and wider.
Living the way of Christ is about getting out of the boat and going with our Lord to the new place he calls us. This is who we say we are. We say so in our mission statement. We put the words in front of ourselves and others all the time. In this body, we build community to help us live the way of Christ.
So, today we in the boat on a scary, faithful sea. Jesus is saying “Come.” If we live his way, we must go.
But, dearest ones, here’s the good news. No. 1, our Lord promises to hold us up in our risk and our sacrifice. No. 2, we can go together. We can step out in faith with one another to make the venture less scary and less lonesome. We can pray together. Together we all can pray harder. We all can give to the plan as we’ve never given before and we can go together! We can go to those scary places of sacrifice arm in arm. We won’t leave anyone alone in the boat. Together, we’ll go meet Christ on the water.
And, for his sure hand and for our faith, we say: It will be so! Amen. Amen.
