|
Sermon 04/27/2008
Come See What God Has Done ~
by Reverand Thomas Cary Kinder
April 27, 2008 Sixth Sunday of Easter
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Psalm 66; John 15:4, 9-17
This sermon was delivered shortly before the congregation voted to adopt a new five year plan
presented by DOV (Defining Our Vision) after two years of work.
The Psalm says, “Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
Come and see what God has done!”
See Bev and Russ Vaughan moved by love
to leave their cozy home nestled below
a Vaughan farm pasture and leave their familiar pew
toward the back of this sanctuary
where Lillian Vaughan sat before them for seventy-five years,
and go almost all the way across the continent
to visit their children and grandchildren,
and out of love go to a church,
a very different church way out west.
See God move as Bev and Russ notice
how carefully that congregation has envisioned
who it is and what God is calling it to do,
and how effectively it presents itself.
See God move Bev to bring back in her hand
a packet from that church and spread it out
on the Church Council’s table here,
giving us a glimpse of another way of thinking,
opening our minds to what the Spirit could do here.
Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
Come and see what God has done.
See how Moses stood with that rag-tag remnant
on the banks of the River Jordan,
and looked over their heads toward the Promised Land
and summed up all the law in these few words:
Choose life, and love God and hold fast to God’s ways
and you shall live. Come and see what God has done,
how God has worked through the choosing of life
and the love of God
and the love of truth and peace and right,
and the love of children and word and music,
and the choosing of this hill two hundred and twenty years ago
by a rag tag remnant of settlers who came and stuck
who built this sanctuary here,
and consider all the love of its beauty
over the centuries that has moved
people like us to come through its doors.
See how God gathered here those who once were strangers
and formed them into a family
of those who choose life
and love God and friend.
See how life unfolds for those who follow
these two simple gestures of the heart,
choosing life and loving.
See how God takes these gifts here, our gifts
as seekers or speakers of truth,
as peacemakers and workers for justice,
as cookie bakers or caretakers of budgets and rooms,
as teachers or as children with all their gifts of light,
as wordsmiths or musicians
or those with the gift of being deeply moved by music,
or those who love God’s first language,
the silence they hear in their deepest heart,
see how God has taken all the diverse strands
of strangers and made them one
so that when they begin to think and plan,
a vision forms as if from the different corners
of one mind—not perfect, not perfectly unified,
having some doubts, some contradictions,
some softer voices that get outweighed
by stronger impulses, voices sometimes
swayed by something other than God, yet come,
see what God has done with all that,
imperfect as it is, and make
a joyful noise to God all the earth!
Hear Jesus say, “Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit…
As God has loved me, so I have loved you.
Abide in my love.”
See like a slide show up on a screen
circle after circle after circle, abiding in love,
a year of Church Council meetings in the Newcomb Room
flashing up one after another as faces change
and shift from seat to seat, see papers and papers,
the flip charts with Scot Zens scribing and pages flipping
and Eleanor Zue sweeping her hand over notebooks
filling with the records of a plan to plan,
see take flight out of those meetings the smaller group,
the DOVs, Charlie Buttrey leading and Jody Biddle
with laptop clicking, and Scot Zens and Lilla Willey
and Robin Osborne and Bob Hagen and the pastor,
sitting at a table in the Newcomb Room
or sitting in a circle in the pastor’s office
with papers in their laps and file folders
that keep growing in each successive photo.
Then see the small group circles in each of their homes,
from Scot’s picnic table in the warm early fall
to Lilla’s warm wood paneled room in a cold fall rain,
to Jody’s, to Robin’s, to Bob Hagen
guiding cars into his dark yard
like a man on the tarmac guiding in 747s,
and then there is a malfunction and a slide doesn’t work
and we see the shock of bright empty light fill the screen
for the meeting that never happened at Charlie Buttrey’s,
canceled three times this wild winter.
We have slides of bigger gatherings, too,
last June’s Vision Sunday, a potluck, the Newcomb Room wall
covered in writing with red, yellow and blue dots,
and the large circle filling the corners of the Newcomb Room
just three weeks ago – come and see what God has done,
see all these people choosing life and
loving God and one another and this church
abiding in God and Christ and love,
the Spirit abiding in them. Think of all the hours,
the thought, the chosen words, the drafts,
think of the interviews, each member of DOV alone
or in twos or threes going out into the town
and neighboring towns, sitting with other ministers
or lay people or town or school staff
asking them questions, listening carefully, taking notes
and coming back with all they collected. Come, see
how every interview, every conversation, every circle
however small or large is recorded,
considered, prayed over, and come,
see what God has done with it all.
Jesus said, No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
He was about to leave them, send them off
across their own River Jordan into
that post-Easter, post-Pentecostal Promised Land,
and this is what he gave them—lay down your lives
in love for one another. Come, see
how that has happened here,
see all the sacrifices that have brought this day,
how out of love the DOVs laid down
countless, countless hours for this church,
in meetings, at computer screens late at night,
seven people in one small room going over
every sentence and every word, writing and rewriting and
rewriting again, fiddling and adjusting,
receiving comments and rewriting again.
See Terry Barker emailing and copying
and standing in the post office putting on stamps,
see all the congregation in their homes taking the time
to sit down and read this document, twice,
and remember, behind all that, the generations
through the centuries of people
who loved God and each other and this church—
all the loving sacrifice that has brought this day.
Come and see what God has done.
See what can happen when you choose life
and love God and follow God’s ways.
See what happens when you abide in love
and lay down your life out of love for your friends.
Come and see what God has done.
See it all as one whole and holy thing,
see with the eye of your heart
how far we have come
and where we have arrived,
this long journey here
to the east bank of the River Jordan,
ready to cross over into the Promised Land,
that place where we will become the people
God calls us to be, and do the works of God’s love.
Let us see the vision of our long journey
to this vision, and hold it in silent prayer.
Let us pray…
And now, having considered what God has done,
let us make a joyful noise to God.
return
to the top of page
return
to Past Sermons Archive
|
