After reading the scriptures I lead the congregation in making rain sounds by snapping their fingers, clapping, and stomping.
I started our reflection today with rain sounds because we’ve just read about God’s claims to bring us through water and fire and all manner of struggle and strife just because God is God and God loves us. That’s tremendous claim!
In fact, it’s so incredible that God – the original cause for all that is – would claim to love us, that God only says it directly one time in the Old Testament. Of course, he is speaking specifically to the People of Judah through the Prophet Isaiah, but we know that this claim includes us.
I say we know it, but maybe “believe” is a better word. We believe it to be true, and it gives us hope and meaning when there seems like there is nothing left to hope for. That is what many in our community and our region felt like in 2016 after an unnamed storm dropped 7.2 trillion gallons of water on 22 parishes.
Surely we have come through the waters. Surely we have been a part of the actions of God that have kept others from being overwhelmed. In fact, in partnership with our Presbytery and the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program, we have been a part of the effort to support 437 volunteers in 88 homes that have transitioned 181 of God’s beloved children into safe and sanitary homes!
Believe it or not, there is still work to be done, and our Presbytery support staff are working hard to not only get more volunteers here but also build a network for a more coordinated response for the next storm that comes.
In the meantime, it’s a good idea to be reminded of who we are and whose we are. I mentioned last Sunday that Christmas was the “What?” (the event that set all others in motion) and Epiphany was the “So what?” (the recognition of heaven and earth that the game had changed). Now in remembering the baptism of Jesus, we have the “Now what?” as in, “Now what are we going to do about it?”
Really it’s the same question that we have been asking and answering over and over in our ministry together. Are we surviving or thriving?
It is that same question that led us in 2012 to say that we believed that God was calling us to redefine our mission. By that, we didn’t just mean our mission statement. We meant our core purpose. We meant asking ourselves what this community would miss- other than our architecture- if we disappeared.
From that, we developed a focus on hospitality as a core value. We did Bible studies and a sermons series on hospitality and found out that it has nothing to do with potlucks and everything to do with risking vulnerability for strangers. So we looked at models of ministry that relate to food scarcity, housing issues, and community building, and then we just got stuck.
Then the floods came, and because we had been doing the prayerful work of inviting the Spirit into places that we were afraid to go we were able to open up our building to flood recovery volunteers! In fact, we were even able to respond to a call for shelter during a hard freeze and an opportunity to house children from Africa who travel the world to sing God’s praise!
All of this has been to God’s glory, and without prayer and open hearts and rolled up sleeves it never would have happened. Yet there is still a nagging question that we are confronted with today. Are we surviving or are we thriving? Are we people who have heard the word of God and believed or are we people that have received the Holy Spirit?
That’s a dangerous question. We Presbyterians are a little shy about that aspect of the Triune God. We can deal with the Creator God of the Old Testament, even though he seems a little grumpy sometimes. Jesus is great! We love him. That Holy Spirit, though… it’s hard to say what the Holy Spirit is going to do.
That is, of course why we work together to figure it out. Certainly, God is going to move in your life and mine in different ways, but somehow that Spirit always seems to push us toward greater unity than division. Somehow that Spirit seems to nag at us when our efforts of connectivity and purpose stall out or begin to become reactive and fearful.
A little over a year ago, the Spirit began to nudge our church Elders to think about what might be next for us after the floods. They formed what we call a Hospitality Vision Team to be kind of like a think tank for the Session and for the congregation. Their basic task is to help build a culture of Biblical hospitality in and through all that we do, and one of the ways they have done that is by providing us the opportunity to try new things.
Like all committees, things have gone slower than hoped, but they are going! Some of you will remember a lunch we had last Spring to get input from members about a sign that would tell passers-by what we are about. The suggestions you gave were so good and rich that when we tried to distill it into a simple phrase we just couldn’t. So, we put it on hold and prayed.
Along the way, we met with a few community leaders and talked about our relationship with ULL and the downtown, and we began to think about our little corner as a place of connection. Then we found out about a program at Rayne High School to buy picnic tables built by students! So, the Hospitality Vision Team approached the Session and they agreed to use some memorial funds for the project!
Now, what does any of this have to do with the gospel? Everything. What we do in the church – rightly or wrongly, faithfully or selfishly – is all a part of discerning the movement of the Spirit. When we read Luke’s gospel and we hear that even Jesus was baptized in a crowd, we know that the crowd is important to the work of the Spirit.
When we come together and hear about the work that God is doing in and through us, and in and through our ministry partners, and in and through our Presbytery it gives us hope that God is active and present in other places, too. When we look at the monumental task of building a water purification system in Cuba and see how God is conspiring to make it happen, then we can have a reason to believe that God is conspiring to bring goodness and mercy and life-giving waters in all of our places of need!
In a few moments, we are going to recognize God’s active presence in the calling of certain individuals to guide our congregation as spiritual leaders. This is a good and very holy thing, but it does not diminish the active presence of God in your life. If anything, installing church officers is a recognition that we are all in this ministry together.
While I am not expecting the heavens to rip open and a voice to cry out, I am expecting to get a glimpse of heaven through the things God has done and will do in our midst. I am expecting that in our conflicts and celebrations there is yet another voice that rings out, saying, “You are my daughter. You are my son. I love you.”
The key to hearing that voice is prayer. I don’t mean laundry list and “Lord why don’t you?” I mean the type of prayer that isn’t trying to change God. I mean the type of prayer that listens and waits. I mean the type of prayer that is clear about requests but expects God to change you. I mean the type of prayer that leaves you and me asking ourselves, “Okay, now what?”
Pray, Beloved and the answers will come. It may not be the answer you want, but with God’s help – that is through the movement of God’s Spirit – there is nothing we cannot endure, and there is more to be accomplished than we can even imagine. So, let’s keep on imagining. Let’s keep on risking. God will not abandon or forsake us, for we were made to thrive! Amen.
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