Transcript
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen. Please be seated.
Before I begin, you might be surprised that I’m both preaching and celebrating. And that’s because I took the preaching from Ryan. And you’ll understand in a moment.
I want to start my sermon by saying thank you. Thank you for an amazing adventure. No, that’s not quite right. Thank you for the start of an amazing adventure. Today is officially the one year anniversary of my first Sunday at Saint John’s. We’ve made it a year. It has been an honor and a blessing to serve alongside of you all, and to have all of you as part of my journey in this call, to get to learn from you all and with you all, to learn how Saint John’s Church started and what it went through in the past 400 plus years. To see where Saint John’s Church is today, and to dream about where Saint John’s Church could go, could become in the next 400 years.
We didn’t burn the building down. Thank goodness. We didn’t drain the coffers. Thank goodness. We didn’t scare anyone off. Or at least we didn’t scare too many people off. That’s a joke. Please laugh. Instead we thrived.
We grew in many ways, including people who attend on a Sunday. People we serve, through outreach. People who know Saint John’s Church and where we are located. People who have seen the inside of our gorgeous church building. Even people who serve within the various ministries of Saint John’s Church. And we’re continuing to grow. We’re continuing to thrive.
I was lamenting the other day that I’m so busy, and there’s so much going on at Saint John’s, and I was happily reminded of what I say every Sunday during announcements. A busy church is a thriving church and we are definitely thriving. We are thriving because you all had faith. Faith for things hoped for. Things not seen.
So again and again and again. Thank you. Thank you for your faith in Saint John’s Church in one another and in me. I will not try to name every individual by name, but I can at least try to name the ministries and the teams.
Thank you to the search team who had faith that I might be the next person to call as priest in charge. Thank you to the 2024 vestry for agreeing with the search team and calling me. Thank you to the staff, Patrick, Deborah and Michael for sitting with me as I learn and grow. Ryan gets his own. Thank you. Don’t worry. And for joining me in the dreaming and imagining and hoping.
Thank you to the finance team for taking a leap of faith with the 2025 budget. And thank you to everyone who invested in that budget with pledge cards. Thank you to the 2025 vestry for working with me on visioning what’s next? Thank you to the carrot search team for helping me call Ryan. And thank you to Ryan for accepting the call to come here. Thank you to our Christian Formation Ministries and our fellowship ministries. Thank you to all our amazing worship and liturgy ministries, especially for putting up with my promise to not make any changes the first year and then promptly making changes. Oops.
And most importantly, which is why I will repeat this over and over and over again. Thank you to all of you. You who make Saint John’s well, Saint John’s. You who make me want to be here. Want to be who God is calling me to be as your priest in charge.
Of course, I could redo that whole litany of thank you’s by replacing the thank you with something like by faith. By faith. The search team recommended me to the vestry. By faith, the finance team recommended the 2025 budget. By faith, all the various ministries began to imagine what could come next. By faith, all of us have confidence in things hoped for. Assurance of things not seen yet.
Interestingly, while the first line of the letter to the Hebrews defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, there are a couple of different translations for those two key words assurance and conviction. Hypostasis could mean, and sure, assurance can also mean confidence. So faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and it is also the confidence in things hoped for. And Elenchos could mean conviction and also could mean assurance. So faith is also the conviction of things not seen, as well as the assurance of things not seen. Faith is what brought us together, what allows us to continue to imagine what could come next and to work towards that next.
Do you know the feeling of butterflies? Like when you’re nervous or sometimes excited and you get that Twitter lady feeling in the pit of your stomach, almost like you’re about to start jumping around, or like you’re walking on your toes because you feel so lifted up. Yeah? I get that every time I think about Saint John’s Church, every time I think about all that we have accomplished in this past year and all that we are about to accomplish in the coming years. I get that feeling every time I realize that something big is about to happen. And to be honest, it feels like most days something big is about to happen. Maybe not quite as big as God’s kingdom, but certainly things that are taking us closer to that, closer to God’s kingdom on earth.
Scripture is, of course, filled with stories of people who had faith and tried something new and trusted beyond themselves in those around them and in God. We can read about some of the original faithful in the passage from the letter to the Hebrews. Saint John’s Church is also filled with stories and examples of people who had faith and tried something new and trusted beyond themselves and those around them, and in God. And Saint John’s Church will continue to have those stories and examples as we move into the next year together, or hopefully years as we move into the next phase of our journey together.
You all make Saint John’s Church what it is: a busy, thriving church filled with people of faith and hope, dreams and imaginations, assurance, confidence and conviction. I can’t wait to see what we do next together. All it takes is a leap of faith. Faith that is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Are you all ready for the second year? Let’s go.