O
The Places You Will Go
April
27/2014 John 20: 19-31
Did you know that Dr Suess would have been 100 years
old this past March, a remarkable man Dr. Suess Very smart, very asutue, a
prophet in of our era, full of wisdom and good sense, and even when he uses
nonsense language the profound message in his writing has the ability to touch
all ages of people. generations. In each
of his prophetic books he had something wonderful to teach us
“You do not like green eggs and ham, try them and you
may I say” (Green Eggs and Ham)
“From here to there from there to here, funny things
are everywhere.” (One Fish Two Fish)
“I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an
elephant’s faithful 100%” (Horton Hears a Who)
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing
is going to get better. It's not.” The Lorax
Suess knew that the prophets voice gets lost in the loudness
of the cultures chaos, Horton the Elephant to Betty Lou Who, and of course the
Lorax, all prophets in their own countries who voice is lost in the chaos of the
culture – Jesus too knew about messages not being heard and understood and
ignored – as we just witnessed to the deafness of his culture as they arrested,
tried and crucified him for his attempts to share God’s message of love with
his generation.
We are here today to celebrate your congregations 60 of
service and I think the most fitting Suess quote for this auspicious occasion comes
from lines of Dr Suess book of journey and inspiration. O, The Places You’ll Go reminds us that our
journey is an opportunity for a life filled with possibility. And as a
congregation you have lived a life filled with many possibilities.
“Congratulations!
Today is your day. You are off to
great places! You’re off and away! You
have brains in your head. You have feet
in your shoes. You can steer yourself
any direction you choose. You are on
your own. And you know what you
know. And you are the guy who’ll decide
where you go…”[1]
60 years ago this community began that journey – you were
off and away with brains in your head and feet in your shoes – you came
together with a common purpose and sense of vision.
· You
knew who you were and your purpose for being,
· you
knew why you were and what made you unique
· you knew what you were and why what you were
doing was important
You came to build a church, a building and more
importantly gather a community who under the banner of the United Church of
Canada would worship together, fellowship together, care for your children,
share meals, nurture each other, learn together about God in Jesus and how your
relationship with God in Jesus, the community and the church all worked
together. You built a building, a
physical structure that let the community know you were here and they were
welcome. You built a bigger building as you numbers
grew and your need for more space increased, and over the decades your building
and community expanded to meet the needs of each subsequent generation. Look at all the place you have gone to. Look at all the ministry you have
accomplished, how many children have been nurtured, how many families had
celebrated new members and began matrimonial journeys and mourned the passing
of a special member?
And here you are in the middle of your journey, this
journey this community choose to take with Jesus as it’s guide walking a
pathway that your belive has been forged by God. It has not always been easy – there have been
struggles and conflicts and times of darkness and disillusionment. There have been moments when some in your
midst have said ‘no more’ and went off to find another path to follow. You have lost people along the way as they
have lived to their end of their life journey and departed from your midst –
you have gained people along the way – friends have moved in to your community,
and merged into your culture and joined in along the way. They have brought new life and light and
energy to the journey, and so here we are in this building celebrating where we
have been and looking forward to where we are going to. We are in the waiting place – the disciples
are looking forward to – to who they are without Jesus, to what they should be
doing, to where their journey will take them now. They too are in the waiting place.
It is evening on the Sunday after the Friday crucifixion
and most of Jesus disciples, at least most of the men – minus Judas of course,
are back in the room where they had shared the bread and the cup just a few
short days ago – the door is locked.
Even though they had seen the empty tomb, even though they had heard the
story of Mary’s encounter with Jesus in the garden, even though – they are still
hold up inside a locked room – not sure what to do, where to go, how to
continue or even if they should continue at all! In spite of witnessing to Mary’s encounter
with the Christ – fear is still the pervasive emotion and doors are locked
bared against the anger and hate that had nailed Jesus to the cross – maybe if
they keep lying low the incidents of the past few days will be forgotten about
and they can continue on with their lives as if nothing had ever happened. Fear is a large lock on any door
I also wonder if the disciples may not have also been
afraid of Jesus – if he had indeed returned as Mary suggested – would he not be
just a little peeved – maybe a lot peeved at Peter who denied him an deserted
with them all who had abandoned them – after promising on Thursday evening as
he was washing their feet that they were with him to the end – just a few hours
later – all (except perhaps the beloved disciple) had laid low enough that he
could not see them from his vantage point high up on the cross. Perhaps the last person the disciples wanted
to meet on that evening was Jesus, risen from the dead to confront them with
their failures. Seems to me that it is
more than enough reason to lock a door and lay low for a couple of days.
But locked doors and frightened disciples do not deter
Jesus
Jesus comes – Jesus comes into the room and says “peace
be with you’ Jesus offers peace to his disciples, not condemnation, not
recrimination, not accusation but – peace.
Jesus shows his wounds and then breathes on them – shares the Spirit of
God in his very breath, and sends them out to continue the ministry that Jesus
had started three years before – sends them out to share the Good News.
And here we are – just like those first century
disciples in this room waiting for the Christ to show up and breathe on us and
send us out into the next 60 years of ministry –it is a frightening place to be
- because in this day and age when we witness to churches all around us
struggling to survive, watching their numbers shrink, their finances dwindle,
and the heads getting greyer…it may be hard to imagine just where God is
calling us to go now, what God is calling us to do now! What God wishes us to
be now. Sixty years is a long time from
the excitement that gathered the folks at the beginning to find the energy and
resources to build the building and vision the ministry. A lot has happened in that 60 years.
But maybe we need to not get too ahead of ourselves –
maybe we need to instead like the disciples focus on the next day – the next
week – how do we let go of the fear and unlock the door? how do we share the good news? – how are we inspired
by the breath of Christ? We need to
trust in the same thing that our charter members trusted, we need to rely on
what the disciples in the locked room relied on – we need to remember that this
church and these people are gathered here because God called us here and God is
not done with us yet. We need to remember
that we are an Easter people, that Jesus is alive, and with Christ all things
are possible.
We have to be willing to
open our hearts and our minds to the world and to God and how God wants us to
live and love in this world. And that… is scary. When we leave things open,
anything can happen.
Remember where the disciples go to when they finally
leave the room – after being holed up for over a week in the upper room, I imagine they were glad to finally get out
into the fresh air – going back to the lakeshore and returning to the fishing
boats must have felt like a breath of fresh air after all the fear and
unknowing in the upper room. It is good
to return to what they know – but Jesus meets them here as well…Jesus comes to
them in the midst of the fishing trip – as a voice from the shoreline calling
out to them to change what they are doing – to fish from the other side, to
throw their nets in a different direction.
I wonder how hard that was for them to do – to cast
their nets from left to right instead of right to left – but when they did – a
full net so many fish they could hardly haul them up.
· What
do you think we are being called to do here? –
· What
do the fish look like in the waters of Kitchener/Waterloo? –
· When
Jesus asks us throw the net of the other side, how hard is that for us to do?
· What
are we fishing for?
· What
do we hope to catch?
· Where
and what is God calling us to now?
· This
time, 2014 – 60 years since you started – what does the road look like that we
travel on now?
I wonder how it is will be for us to do – to throw our
nets from left to right instead of right to left? To turn our focus onto other opportunities
and new ways of looking at things – what will ministry for the next few years
look like?
I suspect it will not be couples club, and messengers
and CGIT – although wonderful ministries in their time, finding leadership and
energy for such groups has become harder and harder to do. Our net may also not fill up with young
families to populate our Sunday School and volunteer to serve on church boards
and tithe 10% of their hard earned salaries to the church coffers – wouldn’t it
be wonderful it were that easy – and things could be like they used to when
people just showed up, and the pews were full and so were the offering plates –
but they are not – but you know – this is where Jesus meets us today – here in
this room, breathing on us the breath of the spirit – reminding us that we are
the ones who are sent as the Father sent him.
That we are the ones who have brains in our heads and feet in our shoes.
Together, we are the ones who are called to walk this
road of the next few years of ministry for St.James~Rosemount United
Church. I can pretty much guarantee you
that it is not going to be easy – there will be things we may need to end and
much more that we may need to pick up – the road is harder to distinguish these
days, and our culture moves farther away from understanding and tolerating what
we do in order to live our faith. But I
can also guarantee that we are not alone, and as long as we remember why we do
what we do and in whose name we do it – God will be with us every further step
we go on our journey of faith both as individuals and as a congregation.
“On and on (we)you
will hike. And I know (we) you’ll hike
far and face up to your problems whatever they are. You’ll get mixed up of course, as you already
know. You’ll get mixed up with many
strange birds as you go. So be sure when
you step. Step with care and great tact
and remember life’s a great balancing act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your
left. And will you succeed? Yes!
You, will indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.) Kid you’ll move mountains! So…be your name Buxbaum, or Bixby or Bray or
Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shay, your’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.”[2] So be our name St James, remember no fear, we
are off to great places with God who will steer.”
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