Shaughnessy Heights United Church

Prayer:
May truth be spoken, and may only your truth be heard, O God, the way, the truth and the life of the world. AMEN

Sometimes the preacher's task gets more complicated the more you live with the texts. Monday, when I started thinking about the two lessons assigned for today, the message seemed fairly straight forward. The provocatively simple title you see in the order of service: "Who's in Charge?" reveals my cockiness and conviction.

It was easy in the sense that Isaiah makes it clear that God is in charge in all domains of life and over all the earth's peoples. There are princes or rulers, but "when God blows upon them, they wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble."
That's always important for any leader to remember: whether you are Saddam Hussein, or George Bush, or the principal of a school, or the glue-person in a household, a player on a team, the energizer of a church committee, the foreman of a work party, or the minister of a congregation.
God is in charge - whether we acknowledge it or not.

The Gospel reading reinforces this simple message for individuals. Jesus is in Capernaum and one healing - the healing of the mother-in-law of the lead disciple - is followed by many more. By the end of the day Jesus is exhausted - there's nothing left in the tank.
By morning he knows his need - he must slip away for prayer in the "wilderness" - that empty place where the inner demons of our lives assail us and where the temptations of the world wrestle with our best selves.
"Jesus," the flattering voice titillates, "Jesus, if you really go for this miracle worker role you'll draw the crowds and create a real legacy for yourself."
And as if to seal the struggle between his ego and God's calling, his closest disciples come to haul him back to the familiar place to continue building his reputation.

But Jesus waits for the Lord - in his praying he opens himself to God - as he does throughout his brief ministry - and
rather than give in to his ego camouflaged by service,
he chooses the hidden route - focusing on self-giving and faithfulness.

Glory and acclaim might have met his ego needs. But it would have done nothing to get others to share in the mission of proclaiming God's sovereignty in life.
Jesus acknowledges the reign of God - God is in charge.
For him and all who share that faith conviction, this simple statement has tremendous implications for living.
If God is in charge, there are consequences to draw.

For Jesus it means total commitment to God's truth, God's healing, God's justice and love in the world.
Jesus' self-giving resulted in the deep joy of faithfulness, on the one hand, and the personal price of the cross on the other.

Now why did I say this sermon was a complicated task, when it seems so straight-forward?
The problem is I took our four-legged friend Femmy (our family dog) for a long walk just after starting to write this sermon. And over that 1 ½ hour jaunt, the Word kept pushing me to reflect on our life together here at SHUC.

The fundamental question that kept popping up was not "who's in charge?" - that's already clear - only God can be in charge, esp. in the church.
Instead, I was pushed to reflect on leadership and what that means in our congregation.

Have you ever watched a school playground at recess time? On a good weather day there will be hundreds of children - all doing their own thing, either on their own or in small groups. It looks like chaos and it really is.

But then suddenly a bell rings and all at once there is dramatic change. The bell announces the end of recess and most of the children know it is time to move with common purpose back into the school.

Leaders make a huge difference. I'm not talking about the one who rang the bell. I'm talking about the girls and boys who first say:
Let's go, race you to the door;
they encourage, invite, cajole, offer to hold hands with the little ones in their play group as they head back into the school.

And the children who were looking for worms, or doing mental gymnastics, or just watching the clouds - their leadership is just to start moving toward the school entrance. Everyone in the playground has gifts of leadership to share - especially when they are clear about the meaning of the bell.

A congregation is just one of those little groups filling God's global playground. It's easy to assume that everyone in a congregation knows what a congregation is really about - the bell - God's will.
You know: worship, church school and youth groups, pastoral care, and outreach to First United Church and the Mission & Service Fund. And then some….

But in the last few years, in the changing context of the Canadian and global church, much has changed. We've had to widen perspectives, even as influence and resources of members and money have shrunk.

Here at SHUC, in the annual Town Hall Gatherings we've identified all sorts of things we'd love to tackle.
We want to deepen our relationship with God; we've talked about being a seeker congregation which engages different faith heritages; we wanted more arts in lively worship; we want to make our congregation more multi-cultural; outreach needs to grow; we want to be on a sure financial footing and have facilities that allow us to do what is needed; we want to grow the younger part of the congregation, even while maintaining the covenant with all the elderly not able to gather for worship. We want to be a church with a difference.

And all these varied agendas still await a succinct mission statement, to give expression to how we understand the bell - God's will for us, and provide guidance to the leadership of the congregation.
It is not fully clear what we as a community - all of us together - believe God is calling us - SHUC - to become.

So when the Council meets this week, that lack of clarity will complicate matters as it has to wrestle with a budget that needs to grow $50,000 if we really want to do all the great things we know we can do and believe God wants us to do. If the revenues don't grow, then what will have to be cut?
The Council will also be wrestling - again without full clarity about the vision of the congregation - about whether we should welcome a homeless Korean congregation to use our space - Sunday afternoons and on one evening per week.

Now in my mind as lead minister of this congregation, the issues in both cases are clear and simple - mainly because of how I understand the mission of a larger local congregation like SHUC.

My take on the vision is simple: a people deeply relating to God, with all participants sharing their gifts faithfully in order to be a community that cares at least as much for God's world around as we do for our own life. I have a vision of a thriving congregation with a full-range of opportunities for all ages to experience and share in God's transformative love.

So for me the budget question is simple:
the Council and its committees need to be challenging all on the congregational list to step up to the plate - to exercise leadership - by sharing more of the riches of time, talent, and money God has entrusted to each of us. There is large room for growth - in 2002, 170 households gave less than $100 - or an average of $20 for the whole year; and 133 gave less than $1000 or an average of about $9 per week - less than the price of admission to a show. That left only 90 of our 393 households giving more than $1000 for the year. Grateful for all gifts, the numbers are clear: we have lots of room to grow for real sharing of gifts.

And secondly, because we love our neighbour as ourselves, we open our arms to welcome the homeless Korean congregation. Sure we all recognize that we will have some sorting out to do and some bumpy moments as in any relationship, but we also recognize that there will be a large financial plus for our congregation in this -
but the real reason we do this is because we want to be in deeper communion with more of God's people and we want to share across cultural lines in making the Gospel of Christ real for more people.

Now my vision may have these issues appear simple, but I also know there is still work to do to get all our varied personal visions into a common vision for our congregation.
So when the Council meeting on Tuesday leads and the congregational meeting on the 23rd decides, those actions will give each of us more clues about the real, practical vision guiding our congregation. Those meetings will signify whether step by step we are moving toward a vision of God that more can claim as their own.

I believe the clearer the shared vision is, the easier it will be for us all to make decisions, to share our gifts and to offer our leadership skills.
In the end that is what it takes to carry out the mission of the congregation - everyone of us leading in our special way, with our unique individual gifts for the well-being of the congregation and its mission in the world God loves.

I believe God is in charge. And that conviction is what makes the difference as we continue working on our identity as a congregation and at what we should do in Christ's name. Thanks be to God. AMEN

Shaughnessy Heights United Church congregation is a Christian faith community respecting each other in our diversity and reaching out to all who seek God’s love.

CELEBRATING: SERMONS

"Who's in Charge?" Feb 9nd

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