April 23, 2011

• Starting Over

  We are a resurrection people!  We believe in new life coming from death.  We believe that God is able to make all things new.  We believe this but we don’t always live it. Sometimes we are more like the people in the dessert complaining that God has abandoned them there to die. Today we celebrate an empty tomb and a risen Christ and still we are sometimes more like the disciples living in hiding and believing that everything we had believed in died.  We think in terms of endings being forever and not able to comprehend the glorious potential in starting over.  Our faith is all about cycles, about everything having a season, and in trusting that God is in control of the planting, the growing, the harvesting, and the planting again.  We all know that for something new to grow a seed has to be planted, seed decays and then sprouts.  The plant grows and produced new seeds which are harvested and planted and the cycle begins again.

   

  Sometimes we are tempted to think that life is about reaching a destination rather than about cycling through experiences.  As children, we talk of becoming an adult as if it was an event rather than a life-long maturing process.  We speak of getting an education as if we ever stop learning.  We say we have found our life mate while most of us know a life mate is someone you rediscover every day and, if you don’t, you discover you and your life mate have grown apart.  We think we want everything to settle down and just stay the same.    But the truth is nothing stays the same, even rocks wear away in the wind or water.  We cannot avoid change so we should learn to live into the change expecting great things to come from it. 

   

  When I speak to churches and people about accepting change, they will often counter with God never changes.  God doesn’t change, however, we have yet to fully comprehend God so our understanding of God will and must change as God is revealed to us in new ways.  And, I don’t want to upset you too much, but God is not what we call the church.  There is the universal Church of all believers but what we call church falls far short of the true Church.  We can get so attached to what we think makes church church that we can’t let the cycle of life happen in our churches.  Can you imagine what would have happened if they people in the dessert had decided they weren’t moving, they were going to sit right where they were and insist God make the dessert their promised land?  I am pretty sure the cloud and pillar of fire would have kept moving and those who didn’t follow would have died in a dessert and wondered why God didn’t fulfill God’s promise.

   

  Each time life forces us to handle a change, it is an opportunity for us to grow in some way.  Not all changes are fun, not all changes make our lives better, but all changes teach us something about ourselves and, if we are willing to listen to the Spirit, will teach us something about God.  One of the most beautiful creatures God made is the butterfly.  Last week we had butterflies everywhere.  We had butterflies on our altar cloth and some of us had butterflies in our hair.  But you know for there to be a butterfly, the caterpillar has to be willing to change, to go through what looks much like death so it can develop into a butterfly.  Sometimes we have to be willing to let go of what we think we are supposed to be so we can become what God intends us to be.  Sometimes we have to b e willing to start over.

   

  I came here a year ago, hard to believe isn’t it?  I am sure some of you can’t believe it has been a year already and some of you can’t believe it has only been a year.  Anyway, I came here a year ago because you had experienced an ending.  Some of you felt the ending was good and some of you mourned the ending.  The work we did together was intended to be much like the caterpillar in the cocoon or the seed in the ground.  We were doing the work to start a new cycle.  Not with the belief that we would reach a destination, that you would become the church you will be from now on.  We were doing the work to learn how to live in the cycles of the church and the cycles of our lives.  In each season we are doing the work to prepare for the next season.  We will always be in the process of becoming the people and church for any particular season.  We will always be in the process of ending and beginning.  We are a resurrection people!  Praise God and amen.

  • 8:10 pm
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