Community
Building
September
21/14
Years ago I when I was serving in my first pastoral
charge in Blind River, an Anglican Church in Sault Ste. Marie had biblical
scholar, author and priest Herb O’Driscoll up in our area to lead a workshop on
the future of the Christian church. We
in the United Church were able to piggy back onto his time in the Sault, and
have a one day workshop of our own, tacked on to the end of his time with the
Anglicans. A group of enthusiastic
United Church ministers gathered in the Sanctuary of Willowgrove United Church,
to gain insight from this learned leader.
What struck me then and stays with me until this day is how he talked
about ministry of the future – this was in the late nineties, the church had
begun to loose members, with shrinking budgets and smaller Sunday Schools – but
still the idea that if we do what we did 10 or 20 years ago just tried a bit
harder than all would be well and we could fill up our pews, and collection
plates. We still believed that we could
just tweek what was happening in our congregations and life as we knew it would
return to the glory days of 60’ and 70’s.
I also think that most of us also felt that if we were just the right
type of preacher or the most amazing pastoral visitor, or a fabulous community
development specialist than we could single handed turn our declining congregations
around and the people would return in droves with their hands full of dollar
bills just aching to be placed on our collection plates.
How naive we were!
Herb O’Driscoll quickly put our minds on other things - he was good to
remind us that our ministry was not actually our ministry – we were called to
serve our Creator
· called
to serve the church and called to serve God with the example of Jesus Christ as
our guide. He also reminded us that we
were the one’s
· called
into this present time, not the glory days of the past,
· called
to serve as a servant leader not as a supreme being or a flawless head honcho
· called
to be one of God’s people set apart for leadership yet still apart of the
congregations were we were leaders.
Moses he said was our
example. And he said that Moses was our
best biblical example because the times that we were about to go into – actually
the times that we were in presently were in although we were not fully
acknowledging yet that we were there – these times were wilderness times – and we
were desert wanderers, roaming around in a desert with no real path to follow,
not real direction to go in – just hoping that were we were going would
eventually lead us to the promise land - putting in time until we were ready to
go into the promise land – He then reminded us that throughout the wanderings,
God was there – and not only that, God also was our guide – our guardian
through the desert – and we as leaders need to trust and rely on that presence. But then he said – and here the part that I
carry with me – he said that the leadership we were called into was one of
walking with – walking with
· not
out front shouting directions – four paces left – turn to your right – come on
everyone – follow me this way!
· not
at the back herding the people like sheep, with dogs nipping at their heels and
corralling the people into pens at night
· not
distance and aloof – like an army general making directional plans from the safety
of the bunker while the masses go out to check to see if the strategy is sound.
· And
certainly not like the Pharaoh or the kings ruled the people, oblivious to
their needs, and separate from them by fortified walls and guilded chambers
No – O’Driscoll said – church leadership in the 21st
century required its leaders to be fully immersed in the community, walking
with, experiencing the ups and the downs, willing to put yourself out there to
try new things and to have them fail – able to walk with assuredness when the
anxiety of the group was high – able to be in relationship with all of the
people, in their brokenness and fears, their wisdom and their beauty, their
anxiety and their sacredness.
Todays’ Old Testament lesson is a great example of that
type of leadership in the midst of an anxious and fearful community. The Hebrew people have been on the move for a
while now and the store sthat they have brought with them from Egypt have
reached the end. Stomachs are grumbling,
children are crying, fear is beginning to take hold – the fear that they will
not have enough food to sustain them and that they will perish out in this
wilderness. What a few days ago felt
like freedom and new life in the desert now with a food scarcity crisis – now it
feels like a prison, a place that confines and restricts and may be a place of
death instead of life? You know – it is
understandable – this high anxiety – these freaked out people lamenting what
they lost – because even though they were slaves, even though they their lives
were limited and controlled by the Egyptians – at least they had food, at least
they had bread! But no more – now they
can not count on the Egyptians to feed them – now they have to rely on someone
else – on something else – on something else entirely – now they have to rely
on God – rely and blame God!
Moses, Moses – what do you think you are doing –
bringing us out here in the desert, out here to starve – we would have been
better to die in Egypt at least we would have bread In our stomachs. How dare you lead us to our destruction – how
dare you kill us all with hunger.
You know one of the hardest things about being in
community is blame game – we think that there is something going wrong – so let’s
look around to find someone to blame – because it we do that then there is no
need for us to take responsibility for whatever the problem is – nor is there
any need to try and find a new solution because someone else is responsible.
Moses is living in the midst of the blame game in today’s
reading –
· let’s
blame Moses because we think God leading us to our death from starvation –
· let’s
not look around and see what abundance actually surrounds us –
· let’s
us not see whether there is another way to find food or another possibility for
substance and of course
· let
us blame God for denying us what we feel
we justly deserve
the blame game, the game
where we forget who we are and whose we are….
Paul in the letter to Romans today has a message for
the Hebrew community– hope – for in hope we are saved – and he reminds us that
hope is about what is not seen – what we can not see yet – hope is about God
and what God can do and trusting that God will do something, and that something
is going to save. - When the Hebrew people’s bellies began to
rumble they let go of hope and started to grumble…
I think that this might be a good time to wonder about
how much we too, like the Hebrew people when things start to get tough and the
community around us begins to rumble we too loose hope and start to grumble….
And I bet you we do not need to look far or long to
find examples of this within our own community –
· times
when things were tough and tough got going – often walking out the doors never
to be seen or heard from again
· times
when things got heated and people got burned and went away to nurse their
wounds
· times
when decisions were made that not all agreed with at some took their ball and
went home
· times
when things were dull and malaise set in and people drifted away
· times
when leaders made mistakes or said the wrong thing or offended
· times
when more attention was paid to this cause and less paid to that one
good times, bad times, and
times in between. - This community of faith has been through it all and this
community of faith has increased and decreased as the blame game is played.
Grumble, grumble, grumble –
Moses we are hungry – what has God done to us now!
In hope we are saved
writes Paul: and hope is what is not
seen – we belong to God, a great and abundant and incredible Creator that is
not restricted by our small vision and lack of imagination! We belong to God, our community belongs to
God and it is in whose name this community was created, in whose purpose we the
people of God gather – it is God who gives this community hope, and meaning,
determination and vision – it God in Jesus and the Spirit – Paul writes that is
interceding with sighs too deep for words --- I love that line --- sighs to
deep for words
God knows – God knows our
grumbles – God hears our sighs
· we
are hungry
· we
are lost
· we
are frightened
· w are
anxious
· we
don’t know what to do next
· we
are afraid
God hears – God knows – God is here walking with us, in
our midst on this wilderness wanderings that our community is going on right
here – right now – God is with us, we are not alone – we are never alone!
And we will be fed – maybe the food will be unlike any
food we have had in the past –
Maybe the food will only come each day, and there will
be not enough to gather and keep but just enough to assuage our hunger for the
day and then…we will have to trust once more that tomorrow will take care of
its own.
And maybe we will be found – that the journey that we
are on will begin to feel familiar – and even if we do not see our destination –
even if the road ahead is not clear – because we walk with God, we will trust
that the way will be clear and pathway unobstructed – or if we find an
obstruction between us all we will find a way to clear the path, knowing that
God is in the midst of this community
And maybe our fear will diminish and we will be able to
live in the present unknown reality where tomorrow is a mystery but today is
okay, and all we need for that day is with us.
And maybe the way to what is next will be provided, as
in idea or an inspiration or thoughts that comes in the night – and this
community will be able to hear the voice of God through the inspiration and creativeness
of those in our midst – maybe we will need to learn a new language, the
language of art and poetry of children’s voices and musical notes…
And maybe we will learn to trust, and learn to let go
of our fear, and to know deep- deep
within us that God has not left the building, that we are part of the community
of faith, and that the people who walked with Moses, and the people to whom
Paul was writing to – that they are all part of this one community of God’s
people where all things work together for good for those who love God.
We are a community of faith – each and every one of us
sitting in these pews today – each and every one of us written down on our
membership lists, each and every one of
us who call this church their own – we are God’s people on a journey, walking
together through this time and this place where all the food all the sustenance
that we need for living a godly life will be provided and all the hope that we need
– especially the hope of things unseen is here – we are pilgrims on a journey –
with our God to the promise land. Thanks
be…Amen.
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