Sharing the Gifts...Advent 2014

(This year's readings will be a posted here. We will combine the stories submitted with the blog entries. If you put your e-mail in the box to the right, the post will come to your in-box.)

Week One: The Gift of Waiting...      

God has the power to provide you with more than enough of every kind of grace. That way, you will have everything you need always and in everything to provide more than enough for every kind of good work.
2 Corinthians 9:7b-8 

Wait...

A young woman waits for a “career” job, working underpaid and over-bored to put food on the table. The unemployed wait for an offer, the underemployed for a better position, the underpaid for a better opportunity.

A couple waits to discover if they will be parents, a grandfather waits for diagnosis, a young mother waits for results that will show if chemo worked.

We all wait for political leaders to do their jobs, for the economy to recover, for medicines to take hold, for our next paycheck, for a loved one to get their act together.

Congregations wait for a new minister, new members, new ministries, new life, new hope in an uncertain time.

Waiting is as much a part of life as breathing.

We don’t do it well.

After God brought the people out of slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness and to Mt. Sinai where Moses was called up the mountain to receive God’s laws, the people simply couldn’t wait. At that time of new beginning, all that God had done was forgotten, or just pushed out of mind, while a new god was constructed.

“Well,” you can hear them say, “You shouldn’t have made us wait so long. We get a little crazy when we wait. We forget who we are, what we should be doing. We try to be our own gods. We think we can control life better than You.”

At this new beginning, the point at which we are eagerly looking for God’s promised salvation, God’s instruction to us is, “Wait.”

“Well,” you can hear us say. “You shouldn’t make us wait. There’s too much stress to wait. Anything might happen. It’s important to move things along, give us what we want.”

And God replies, “Wait.”

And so we do. The question is how. Can we wait with the promise that God will provide every kind of grace, and that grace will be more than enough for every kind of good work. During this Advent season, breathe in...breathe out...wait. God’s salvation will come. God’s grace is sufficient. Waiting is our gift.

God, enable to wait with a deep trust in your grace. Enable us to serve with the gifts you have given us. Enable us to see that we have all that we need to serve in your name. Amen.

Journeys...

Our governing board voted last Sunday night to become a "More Light" Presbyterian Church. More Light Presbyterians work for full inclusion of all people, particularly people who are gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual.

Well...many will think…clearly they are a liberal congregation.

They would be wrong.

We are a middle class congregation in the western part of a small city that has served God as a congregation for a little over 50 years. We are young and old, liberal and conservative, white and black and asian and indian, verbal and quiet, active and inactive….like most congregations in America. We were not founded around any particular issue or stance. One church in the late fifties saw a need for a new congregation in a growing part of our city and created a congregation that took hold and thrived. We were a "neighborhood church."

What has happened to us in the last five years, in a sometimes painful process, is we have been transformed by God's Spirit. We are still middle class, still young and old, liberal and conservative, white and black and asian and indian, verbal and quiet, active and inactive. But God has brought us into new places of ministry.

Interestingly, the painful part of our transformation has not been around GLTB issues. It has been more about how we live our discipleship, how we spend our money, what our worship will look like, who our staff will be. We wanted to be "like we used to be." That was hard to define. Our worship is not that different. Our preaching is pretty traditional. Our music is mostly traditional…with a good sprinkling of variety based on the musical gifts of the congregation. So how do we go "back?" "Get rid of the staff," was starting point…but thinking you could find staff like the staff of the 1960's puts you right back into that "cannot go back" dilemma.

What we really needed, and what we got from God-at-work, was the ability to live and serve together without being afraid. We got a new kind of trust, a realization that what we thought was "the worst" was opportunity to grow and learn, a light in what we were experiencing as darkness.

God called new members into this congregation. God brought new gifts. God focused us on prayer and Bible study, service and generosity. Most importantly, God taught us to be together in our differences…united not in the things that make us alike, but in the One that links us together. We live and serve united in Christ, because we are all very different.

One of our committees, evangelism, brought this motion to become a More Light Congregation. There wasn't a group of people politicking for it. There wasn't a ground-swell. I know after the fact there was prayer, particularly expressed by parents of GLTBQ kids who grew up in this congregation. Once we began to discuss this as a congregation we got nothing we expected. We expected conflict; we got questions. We expected push-back; we got curiosity. We expected fear; we got much rejoicing.

Not everyone in the congregation was in favor of the decision. We are still a congregation of all political, theological, economic, and insert-your-issue-here stripes. No particular "group" has dissented. A few people have. They should. Dissent leads us to more prayer, more study, better listening, more care for each other…and ultimately, a deeper trust in the work and timing of our sovereign God.

I was challenged thirty years ago to re-evaluate my stance against "homosexuality." I did not grow up in a faith tradition that practiced full inclusion. I read the Bible and see the texts used for condemnation. I am troubled by much I see in the biblical text on this issue and others.

But I saw Jesus practice radical hospitality and forgiveness. I saw Jesus invite sinners and outcasts into full community. I heard his warnings against judging others. And what I decided a long time ago, what I live by today, and what I will stake my life and actions on in the future is erring on the side of acceptance and grace. If I have to come before God at some point and justify my actions, I will justify radical inclusion…not just on this issue, but in every possible difference.

Is it an easy process. No. Do I agree with all those I accept for who they are? No. Do they agree with me? No. Is it easier to live and serve in a community where people think the same and vote the same and act the same? Sure.

Is it the body of Christ?

No.

The richness of the learning, the community, the connection with each other when we have to depend on God and not on our own "rightness" is precious and meaningful. We have grown stronger embracing our differences.

We remain liberal and conservative, white and black and asian and indian, verbal and quiet, active and inactive. Many celebrate the ability to let people know they will be safe and welcomed here. But we do so with humility. We are not perfect. We have more learning to do. We know it is easy to be afraid of those "not like" us.

But this is our journey in this time. God has called us here. We will step forward, trusting that God has something in mind for us that we could not imagine for ourselves.

What we know, for sure, is this discipleship thing is never, ever, dull. God's journey is one of surprises. And all are invited to journey with us.