Sermon
1-26-20 “State of FoG”
Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
One summer I went fishing with my uncle and cousin on a
lake in northern Wisconsin. I did not notice the beauty that was all around me
– the warm sunshine or the relaxing sound of the waves. I only remember that I
could NOT get the hang of fishing. My uncle tried his best to teach me, but at
every turn I struggled – baiting the hook – YUCK, casting the line – it didn’t
get very far, reeling in the fish – the line got all tangled, taking the fish
off – YUCK again.
Fortunately, Jesus would probably not ask ME to bait a
hook and cast a line. I have other God-given gifts to use for Jesus’s work in
the Kingdom. And you do as well. There are as many different ways to follow
Jesus as there are followers. I look around this sanctuary and see the vast
array of gifts that God is using – understanding of numbers and money, teaching
youth and children, expression in music and creativity, practicing hospitality
and care-giving, and the love of learning, just to name a few. Take a moment to
think about how Jesus as called you. What kind of words has he used, or might
he have used had you been the disciples on the beach? How would you finish the
call of Jesus for YOU? “Follow me, and I will make you……” a nurse practitioner
of the soul. Follow me and I will make you Scout for people. Follow me and I
will make you coach for following in Jesus’ footsteps… or pilot for the route
to the kingdom of God.
A friend just told me a “dad” joke that works well for
today. What is something that you have, that when you keep it in your hand, it
doesn’t work at all? Probably a lot of things fit the bill, but he was thinking
of a net to catch fish with. A net for fish doesn’t work if you hang on to it.
It can only do its job properly if you, quite literally, “throw it away.”
Fortunately, no fishing skills are actually required for catching people for
the kingdom of God.
For almost 45 years, Family of God has been “Fishing for
People” on behalf of Jesus in the Buckingham community. In March it will be the
45th anniversary of being an official and authorized worshipping
community by the Lutheran Church in American, one of the processor Lutheran
denominations that eventually formed the ELCA. We have not always been in this
location – we’ve been in the Buckingham School, in the Hughesian Building, at the
Holiday Inn, just to name a few of the places we have worshiped early on,
before purchasing this land and building this building. Things have not always
been easy - between suffering through cold water on Sunday mornings to
challenges with the township that never seem to change. But here we are, in
2020, hopefully with a clear vision –on how far we have come and what lay
behind us, what God is doing in our midst right now, and how Jesus is calling
us to follow him into the future for the next 45 years… or at least, for the
next 5, as we look toward our 50th anniversary in 2025.
But as for year 44… we’ve had our fair share of
successes, challenges, and opportunities in the past 12 months, making for a
pretty packed year! Way back in the early part of last year, we had our first
ever MLK Day of service, along with a seven-week sermon series on baptism,
dinners and learning over at Buckingham Pizza during Lent. Holy Week brought us
large numbers for our brand-new family-friendly Good Friday service. In the summer
we had no chance to slow down, with Kyle Campbell’s confirmation – which you
all participated in, in one way or another, a week of visioning during our
“Family Chats,” Vacation Bible School with Trinity Episcopal, updating the
Multi-Purpose room, and attending the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee WI.
This left us almost no time to get ready for a very busy fall and winter – the
beginning of our Joyful Noise services, Feed My Starving Children Meal packing
at Del Val, welcoming new members including a first communion retreat, &
painting our windows for Advent & Christmas for the third year in a row.
2019 also brought challenges – saying goodbye to our
organist Father Glenn, mourning the deaths of a few beloved members, keeping
worship consistent amidst our organist transition, the continuing struggle to
keep our aging building in good repair while keeping the budget balanced, and
recruiting volunteers and leaders in key positions to help keep our ministries active.
As we look back on 2019, we can ask ourselves how much of
our nets are we actually casting. We are spending close to half of our budget
on expenses related to internal operations, and the upkeep and management of
our property. Almost a third of my time in 2019 was spent in tasks and
activities related to administration and property. To put this in perspective,
only about 15% of my time and about 10% of our budget was spent on outreach and
community related activities. Are we casting the nets of our resources in the
right areas?
As we are moving into 2020, and our 45th year
as a congregation, we have more than a few opportunities before us. I hope that
through the help of the Holy Spirit, we can rise to the occasion, and motivate
us to reallocate our time and our resources. We are the closest Lutheran church
to New Hope - on the Pennsylvania side of the river – so the opportunity to
becoming an opening welcoming and affirming community for our LGBTQIA siblings
in Christ is right there for the taking. The “fish” are there, do we have the
courage to do the work?
Now that we have a well-established Joyful Noise service
for kids and families, how can figure out to be better reach out to them,
especially families who have members with special needs and are on the Autism
spectrum? Perhaps it’s time to cast our nets wider, which will be easier and
more effective when we have more hands at the task.
Looking ahead, we have successfully reached our pledge
goal of 45 pledges for 2020 – next, we must ask, how can we continued to foster
a community of generosity in wholeness as a community, rather than sponsoring
individual causes or reactively giving only when something goes wrong or need
to be fixed… to instead transform into a community that is proactively generous
and communally oriented. Much the same as the uselessness of nets for the
purpose of fishing for people when they are in your hand… money in the bank or
in a wallet does nothing for the kingdom of God.
We started some of this work last summer, during our
Family Chats, and we hope to continue this work in the coming year as we
explore some of the hopes and dreams that we shared together. I shared a few of
these dreams in my report, but I also want to remind you right now of what we
dreamed that FOG might live into –
-
More small group events, a summer evening
midweek service, a full parking lot each Sunday with people greeting each other
as they walk in,
-
Make more use of our building, co-sponsor
events with other churches, become a community hub, outdoor movie nights, book
discussions,
-
Become the “go-to” church in the area, to
encourage our young people to serve, to be welcoming of the LGBTQIA community,
to include interactive elements in worship, update music in the framework of
traditional worship....
I could go on and on with all of these wonderful, hopeful
dreams we have. And not every one of us will feel called to every item on this
list. Jesus calls everyone differently, at different times and different
speeds. But we have all been called to be part of this congregation, in one way
or another. Like the fish, we have all been caught by Jesus.
The disciples who dropped their nets and followed Jesus
that day did not know how their adventure was going to turn out, and right now
neither do we. Some days will be easier than others.
But Jesus is the one who chose us, caught us, and called
us to a life of living in his footsteps. And we have one another as companions
along the way, and we, at Family of God Lutheran church are continuing this
journey so long after these first disciples. As we prepare to look back as a
congregation on 2019, let’s listen hard to what Jesus is calling us to be and
do in 2020. Together, let’s look and listen for how Jesus is causing the
kingdom to come near to us, right now, with us and among us. Then we too can
take up our nets in our own different ways, to follow Jesus into a new and
exciting future.
There is a prayer that can be found in the ELW that is
perfect for venturing with Jesus into the unknown. It’s one of my favorites,
and we’ll say it again during our annual meeting. But really, we can’t pray it
enough, and I think you’ll see why. Let us pray.
Lord God, you have called your
servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet
untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love
supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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