Transcript
He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. Please be seated.
I’m not sure if you all have noticed, but I love to travel. I’ve been to over 25 different countries and I have a growing list of additional countries I want to visit. One country, one of those bucket list trips, so to speak, is Ireland. Specifically, road trip Ireland. I want to rent a car and drive the coast of Ireland, staying in castles and bed and breakfasts and inns. I want to stop for a herd of sheep standing in the middle of the road and wind along those rocky cliffs where the sea crashes below.
But, I do not want to do this trip alone. Because I have a really bad tendency of leaving one place only to go directly to where I want to go. That sounds odd because generally speaking, that’s what we want to do. But, a road trip along the coast of Ireland requires stopping at random spots, turning down random side roads, basically wandering. And I am not good at wandering.
Nope. To be fair, I am working on it. I’m trying to get better, but I really still am a start at point B A drive route end of point B kind of person. One could argue that applies to how I live life as well, but that’s a different sermon. One difference though about how I drive and journey and wander is that I love towers and lighthouses and anything that I can go climb up.
When my parents and I travel, my mom knows to find a cute cafe and order a tea. Well, my dad and I climb up whatever it is we have found. This has included lighthouses and medieval castles and Moorish fortresses and even Soviet observation towers. So, even though I function by following plans I can still very much appreciate the view from the top looking down at all of the various and possible plans and paths and journeys that we could take.
Perhaps that’s why this passage from Matthew, when Jesus calls Matthew, is so intriguing to me. Matthew didn’t know what he was getting into though. He had no idea what it would mean to follow Jesus or where they would be going. Instead, he just followed.
It’s kind of the same with Abraham as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans. In fact, as Paul points out, Abraham had a lot of reasons not to trust the promise God made. And yet, Abraham had faith and simply followed. Even the leader of the synagogue and the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years they had the same kind of faith. Go to Jesus, ask for mercy, reach out to Jesus, beg for healing. I imagine none of these characters understood the specific terms or steps or processes of their acts of faith, but they still did it.
They still followed. They still believed. They still begged. They still reached out. When all was said and done, the vision they had, the future they imagined, it happened. Love and acceptance for Matthew, descendants to make many nations for Abraham, a daughter alive and well for the leader of the synagogue and hemorrhaging stopping for the woman. They knew where they wanted to end up and they risked an unknown or perhaps not fully known instead of completely unknown. They risked a unknown journey to get there.
Fun fact, here’s my bridge, y’all. Churches get to experience the same kind of thing. Maybe not the whole reaching out and touching Jesus’s cloak same kind of thing, but the same kind of thing that involves knowing where we want to end up, but not not fully knowing how we will get there.
The good news is vestry is working on that as our staff and other lay leaders. And so are all of you. Even if you’re not sure you are, believe me, you are.
More than a year ago, the vestry started looking at where St. John’s church was at the time and where St. John’s church could be in the future. Listening to what the congregation said, having conversations, and participating in ministry, and engaging in worship, there were a lot of conversations, a lot of ideas, and a lot of big projects. In the end, through discernment, and investigation, and prayer, and witness, projects were developed. I repeatedly call it project-based visioning.
We, all of St. John’s Church, has a vision of who we want to be. The vestry, the ministry in charge of visioning, came up with the projects that at this time will help us get there. You may have even been invited to support these projects. You certainly have been invited to give feedback for the projects, and just in case you can’t remember what those projects are, I’ll recap them for you now, in no particular order or hierarchy.
First, we want to emphasize the fact that all are welcome, especially by creating a welcoming space through accessibility. Second, we want to focus on our children and their faith formation, particularly developing a strong Sunday school program. Third, we want to increase our ability to care for everyone by developing a thriving lay pastoral care ministry. Fourth, we want to continue inviting the community to St. John’s Church, offering additional opportunities to welcome the wider community beyond a Sunday morning worship. Fifth, we want to preserve the more contemporary history of a 416-year-old congregation, specifically chronicling our oral history. Sixth, we want to establish healthy structures to ensure we are a safe and well-communicated church home through policies and procedures. Seventh, we want to steward our music ministry by caring for the organ and worship space, anchoring our music program in worship and community life.
You’ve already started to see things happen related to these different projects, and while like Abraham and the leader of the synagogue and the hemorrhaging woman and Matthew, we don’t always know what will happen next. We certainly know what we want to happen at the end. When we are a welcoming, thriving, joyful church overflowing with love and hope and faith. That all we do is according to God’s will.
Yes, my personal inclination is to follow explicitly outlined steps. Like a GPS for left and for life. In 500 ft, turn left. And also, that’s not how life actually works.
We have this vision. We have projects to help build this vision into tangible and achievable deliverables. And also, we don’t always know what those steps in between will be. That’s where you all come in.
Where all of us come in to say, “Hey, what if we stop here? Or what’s down that side street?” And while we might not always get to stop or turn or change directions, after all, a church is a really big vehicle to make sudden stops. We certainly can consider together all the possible ways we can get to where we want to go. Traveling an unknown route to a designated destination.
It will take time and trial and participation, and it will take faith. We know where we want to end. Now, let’s figure out what the next step is.
These projects, hopefully, they’re a good road map, like from the top of a lighthouse looking down to help us figure out the various steps to get to the type of church we want to be. A fun, welcoming community of Christians who include everyone, regardless of age or physical ability or socio-economic capacity. A church where people can come and be just as they are, welcomed, loved, and honored. We already do that for one another. Imagine how many more people we can welcome if we continue these journeys, if we become the church we so very much are capable of becoming. Let us simply take the next step.
Matthew did. Abraham did. The leader of the synagogue did. The hemorrhaging woman did. Now, it’s our turn.
Jesus said, “Follow me.” So, let us get up and follow him, journeying towards the church we can become together. Amen.