What do you remember about the year 2000? Remember when there were some fears that the world would come to a “stop” because all of our computers would stop working? There were many other questions what a new century would bring.
Most of us remember Sept. 11, 2001, now nearing 20 years ago, and how that incident changed much about our lives. What do you remember from 20 years ago? It may be a surprise to ask it: subtract 20 years from your current age. What were you doing? What did your life look like then, compared to now? I was newly married, no children, serving my first call as a pastor in southwest Virginia; now, my oldest daughter is in college. What did Waynesboro look like at the time? DuPont had not yet sold the plant that became known as Invista. Genicom had closed its doors recently. Exit 94 off of I-64 and its development was just beginning to gain momentum. What about the congregation you were or are a member at? What was congregational life like at the time? What was the focus of the church’s ministry and its Mission? We’ve been starting the process of asking ourselves these questions at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Waynesboro. To look back 20 years surprises some people. Was it that long ago?! Some of what Grace was doing in its ministry and mission was different then. Other things appear to remain similar. Some people remark on ways that the world seems all the more complex; where smart phones and texting were rare and just starting to come on the market 20 years ago, nowadays we receive and share information at a speed unheard of even in the year 2000. Others do not welcome the complexity of our modern day; one church member recently talked eloquently about how the present sets a person “on edge;” not knowing what to expect, even something as simple as who will be on the phone when it rings: whereas 20 years ago, more often than not, it might be a friend to enjoy conversation with, now, it may be a “spam-call” or a scam artist trying to get your credit card number. We’ve asked ourselves what we do now at Grace that’s different from 20 years ago. Again, the answers vary. Some things are the same, but many things are different as well. Some people worry that Sunday attendance is a lower than it was 20 years ago: That the hairs on the heads of members are appearing to be a little greyer, and the number of children and younger families are less than in 2000; that there are many more choices offered for our lives on weekends, on Sundays, during the week. Others talk about what they observe around them: that at Waynesboro High School, for example, there’s a great mix of children, at least 34% children of color, while in our worship services, we are still largely segregated. Or other, hopeful observations: that for many congregations, we’re doing more things together, in service to others, for example. And we’re getting to know each other more, congregation to congregation, and rejoicing in our unity in Christ more than our differences: whether we are talking about denominations, or race, or other ways we are divided. And what about 20 years from now? In 2040? What will Waynesboro look like? What will our churches look like? What do we hope for? What does God hope for in our congregations, in this community, in this world? These are harder questions, because we do not have a crystal ball. Or more faithfully, we do not know what God has in mind for the world. And yet, even the most apocalyptic vision in the New Testament, the book of Revelation, the Risen Christ speaks of being faithful in sharing the gospel with the world around us in the present, and with hope that the future is in God’s hands. Scripture says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). The Good News that God offers the world is also the same, and yet it speaks into the world we live in, in as new a way as it did 20 years ago, as it will 20 years from now. Part of that Good News, we say in our Lutheran tradition, is that every day in our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection there’s something in us that needs to die, and something that God raises up in each of us for the sake of what the world needs from Christ’s Church — the love of God that Jesus first showed us. It takes an awareness of the world around us in order to see Jesus in it, and a willingness to let God’s Spirit lead us to do a new thing in order to be faithful. To dream what the church or our community will be can be a scary thing if we are confined to the same old thing. But Christ makes all things new! Including our hopes and dreams for the future, that are in God’s hands.
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A few years ago, I was studying the gospel of Matthew to prepare for a sermon, and what seems like just an introductory line of a story hit me over the head. It was the first part of Matthew 9:9; “As Jesus was walking along …” What struck me was how infrequently I do that. In a couple of ways: First, so often, I go from the house to the car, to church, to the next appointment or meeting, or my daughters’ school events, or sports events, or practices, and so on. It’s all about the “to do” list I have for the day. Sure, there will always be those days where there’s an emergency, or a curve thrown that may throw a wrench in my agenda, but it’s still my (or the family) schedule, keeping control of what needs to be done, and to have space for what I want to achieve, or need to get done, or want to do. And second, even during those times I’m walking along, it’s usually not the way the Jesus did it; he walked along with the intention of AWARENESS, he was paying attention to what was coming his way, and he purposefully walked along to be open to who God would place in his path. When I walk, it’s often on a defined path, or has a purpose, even if that purpose is to “get away from it all,” like a nice hike off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, or to walk the dog in my neighborhood. All through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jesus calls the disciples and says “follow me.” They are called to follow this Jesus who PAYS ATTENTION to the world around him. In John’s gospel there are four times that we hear the phrase, “come and see.” It’s a call to “walk along” for a specific reason, and that’s to pay attention to what Jesus pays attention to. What does Jesus pay attention to? And where does Jesus walk? In Matthew 9, he sees a tax collector, someone that most everyone else would have instantly judged as someone unworthy to follow. And yet, Jesus invites him to do just that. Jesus didn’t take the easy path, but took the time to see beyond a label and an easy judgment. That takes time, awareness. Jesus goes outside of familiar areas. He crosses the Sea of Galilee outside of familiar territory to the places where people of other races live, where people live who are looked upon suspiciously because of “what everyone knows,” he sits and talks with women on equal terms. And if you look at the book of Acts, you’ll hear story after story of the disciples walking along, open — and GOING — where God’s Spirit directs them to go. Which is almost always in an unexpected direction. This time of year school starts. Our grade school and high school children will have already started, or are just a week or two away. Soon, many of our children will be off to technical school, community college or other colleges or universities. I think back to those years, and remember entering a new school, or a new grade, with an openness or hope toward those new people whom I would meet. Or there were other times where it was much easier to fall into familiar patterns with familiar people, or the paths my group was already on, and find it easier NOT to pay attention, or to choose the easier path, or even to judge those who I thought I knew, but actually didn’t know at all. And we know it gets easier — or more manageable in a busy life — as we get older to stick to familiar paths. Any careful reading of the Gospels, however, shows Jesus constantly walking around with the purpose of engaging all kinds of different people — for the sake of healing, breaking down preconceived notions, and most of all to introduce people to the intentions God has for this world, THIS world that God so loves, that he sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:16-17). And he always took his disciples along, for the purpose of teaching them to do the same. An observant congregation member told me the other day that we live in a world and nation “on edge.” So much information is always coming our way, so many things distract us from day to day, that we feel on edge. The temptation is to close down, or to make our world small enough that we think we can control it, for ourselves, and perhaps for our children. Our teacher Jesus, however, invites us on a much different path. For our children in their learning, for each of us in our learning, may God bless us, as followers of Jesus, as we walk along. We celebrate the Fourth of July this week, Independence Day, the day we celebrate our unique freedoms as a part of this United States of America.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence that, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." For our nation we call these words foundational to our understanding of Freedom. Over the 243 years of our nation’s history, however, there’s come to be a certain tension, a push and pull around our freedom, our rights: On one hand, we’ve interpreted our certain unalienable rights in this way: No one tells me what to do. It’s my life, my liberty, my pursuit of happiness. But my life, my liberty, my pursuit of happiness can get entangled in someone else’s, and so comes the response when those things get entangled: There ought to be a law against that. There seems to be a whole host of issues in which this tension — "No one tells me what to do"/"There ought to be a law against that" — plays out in our nation today. Abortion rights, Gun rights, Immigration rights, LGBT rights, Voting rights, are just a few. And you’ll find that these tensions have found their way into the Church as well as the public square. What appears to have happened is the we have squared off on our sides — and those sides appear to follow our political divisions — conservative and liberal. And the temptation is to battle about these rights from the standpoint of No one tells me what to do and There ought to be a law against that. The church in Galatia knew about these sort of divisions. We often forget that the early Church was a huge melting pot of all kinds of different people with very different ideas of who was free, and what it meant to be free; especially as people of God! There were clearly people on both sides of a lot of issues. And there were people who said, "No one tells me what to do," and there were others who wanted a law against that. But God’s Word from the apostle Paul was this: Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do, and destroy your freedom. Rather use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s a true act of freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out — in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? (Galatians 5:1, 13-15, The Message) Freedom, then is connected to our love of neighbor. And, As Tracy Pyles in his editorial earlier this week pointed out, Jesus is pretty sly in reminding us of who our neighbor is: such as telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, the last person anyone would have expected Jesus would use as an example of right living and behavior. The person on the other side of the argument. Loving our neighbor is a very different idea of freedom than the struggles we have today over our “unalienable rights” of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Paul goes on to identify what happens when we forget that freedom is tied to love of neighbor: “strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy…” among many other things that separate us from one another. (Galatians 5:19-21, NRSV) Does this not sound like what we hear every day in the news? Our nation’s idea of freedom was founded on being free from something or someone: for example, being free from British tyranny, or being free from slavery as a person of color. But what if, instead of the idea of freedom being adversarial, one against another, our freedom was for something? Not to do whatever I want, but to act toward my neighbor as I wanted to be treated myself? — love your neighbor as yourself. On this Independence Day week, we celebrate our freedom, and God always gives us the opportunity for that freedom to be for something — or someone. |
AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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