October 9, 2010

• Thanking God for who and where we are

  I am a child of the 60’s and 70’s and so I grew up on posters.  One poster I had said, “Bloom where you are planted!”  In other words, find your joy in your present circumstance rather than waiting or wishing for things to be better or different.  For most people, it is easier to plan for what we will do when life gets better than to decide what we will do right now with our life the way it is.  We plan what we will do when we are able to retire, or we say what we will do when money isn’t so tight, or think about what we will do when we feel better.  Very often I will make plans for a few weeks in the future when my calendar is open only to discover when that day arrives my calendar is full.  Our fantasy future always appears more manageable and has many more resources than our present reality. 

   

  We should have goals for the future so we know where we intend to go but we must also be clear about who and where we are so we can map our way to our goals.  It is critical that we are able to see ourselves honestly and make an accurate assessment of where we are if we ever hope to make progress toward our vision for the future.  The ancient Jews had faith that God had chosen them and they were to occupy the “Promised Land” but the reality was they were living in Babylon.  Jeremiah told them to establish themselves in Babylon because that was their reality and trust in the promise they would remain a chosen people and would live in a promised land.  The important factor was to accept where they were and remember who they were.  We now understand God has many chosen people and any land can be the promised land if we make it so.  There is nothing to be gained by denying reality and insisting our situation must be different for us to be productive or happy.

   

  This congregation is being challenged to make an honest assessment of who you are, what are your assets and liabilities.  We need to do this and do it honestly if we are going to be successful in planning our course to get to the vision we have for the future.  It will be important for us to come together and clarify that vision but the first and critical task is to be honest with ourselves and with each other just who we are.  Sometimes we confuse honest assessment with fault finding.  Being clear about who we are and where we are does not require us to criticize the past, we learn from the past and the past is what has brought us here.  We need to look at ourselves and consider if there are things we have done that are no longer taking us where we want to go.  We don’t criticize a young child for crawling before he or she walks.  Crawling is part of learning to walk but we do hope to go beyond crawling.  We need to find the things that have become habit for us that no longer suit where we are and who we are and let them go with much thanks for where they brought us.  I believe we are to thank God for the challenges in our lives, even the failures of our lives because they are part of what shaped us into who we are today.  I wonder if the reason nine of the lepers did not come back to thank Jesus for being healed was that they didn’t want to acknowledge they were once lepers and perhaps they were even a little annoyed they had had to live as lepers at all.  We are told to praise God in all things, not to praise God for all things.  In even the most horrible times of our lives, something is perfected in us, we are strengthened in some way.  We discover we can survive difficult challenges, perhaps we learn survival techniques we will need again and again in our lives, and we may learn we are a person of worth with skills.  We thank God for the person we are and where we are because we are God’s creation and we are where God has placed us.

   

  We are expected, as Christians, to live our lives in a Christ like manner.  We can only know how well we are doing so if we are willing to examine our behaviors and compare them to the example Jesus gave us.  Jesus never lost sight of the purpose of his life, he didn’t get caught up in the small details or the petty arguments that serve only to distract a person from the goals he or she has for his or her life.  The disciples would get lost in who was most important, or the correct way of doing things, or whether there would be rewards for their service.  The even worried about whether they had the resources to do what Jesus told them to do despite having all the resources of the Divine at their disposal.  It is possible for us to get lost in the details of being church, of doing ritual, of making clear lines of authority, and worrying about whether we have the resources needed to be church and miss out on doing the great things God has equipped us as individuals and as a church to do.  We cannot sit and wait for the congregation to be large before we do ministry, we cannot wait until we have a settled pastor to be about the business of being church, we cannot wait until we have a budget surplus before we talk about needs in the community.  We cannot live in the future, we must be church here and now, just as we are and thank God for who and where we are.

  • 10:53 pm
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