Transcript
For which of you, intending to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost? Please be seated.
Have you ever built a house, or even a shed, or hired someone to build a house, or watched a building get built? I like to joke that I’ve watched enough HGTV shows that I’m practically a master builder by now. Anyway, the first thing that happens is a foundation has to be poured. The ground is leveled. The solid footing is established and the foundation is poured.
Fun fact my sister lives in Oakland, California. Yes, I have an older sister, four years older. She and her husband bought a super cute 1950s Sears catalog bungalow, and they decided to redo it a few years ago, and that’s when they realized the house was not actually attached to the foundation. Kind of a big no no in an earthquake area.
Anyway, once the foundation is poured, then the house starts to get built. You frame it. Of course, I always think of those Amish barn raising events where the whole community comes together and lifts the side of the barn so the frame is standing upright. Once you have the framing, you start to put in the flooring and the walls, the joists that will hold up the weight, and then the specialized parts, things like the pipes and the electrical wiring. And as you keep building, you add built ins and other quote finishes like cabinets and bathtubs, and then you add the pieces that make it livable. The carpet, the light switches, the doorknobs. And finally, at the very end, you add the pieces that make it a home. The furnishings, the dishes, the books, the things that make it a space where you want to be, where you belong.
So the very first step is to set up the foundation. And the very last step is to make it a home. And I imagine that’s kind of the same way a church community is built, or at least with Saint John’s Church community.
You see, we have the foundation goodness. We have over 400 years of foundation, and we wouldn’t be able to be here in 2025, 415 years after that first foundation was established, if that first foundation hadn’t been established. And we have the framing and some of the specialized parts in place, we have the walls and the roof physically, yes. And also, theoretically speaking, we have the energy and the programs and the people and all of the pieces that need to go into a church to make it a church, just like electricity and plumbing and kitchen cabinets need to go into a house to make it a home. And now we are getting to choose the next pieces, the doorknobs and the couch and the bed frames and the lighting fixtures. Now we are getting to add the final touches that make this church not just a building, but a church home, a community, a gathering of people who love Jesus and serve God by serving one another, who worship together and pray for one another, who will feed the hungry and house the homeless, who help our youngest members grow in their faith and give space for us to gather as friends and enjoy good conversations who use our gifts both very visibly and more often behind the scenes.
To further God’s kingdom on earth. To turn this fragile earth, as the Eucharistic Prayer calls it, into a home for all of God’s people. But before we can get to that giant step, we must continue to build Saint John’s Church from just a building to a home.
And the gospel this morning from Luke. Jesus is admonishing a large crowd. You see, at this point, Jesus has quite the following. He’s left Galilee and is on his way to Jerusalem. To be fair, in Luke’s Gospel, it takes Jesus about ten chapters to get from Galilee to Jerusalem, which is only 75 miles, basically from here to Richmond. So there’s a lot that happens along the way.
You can almost imagine how this gospel reading unfolds. I, I picture a scene from Jesus Christ Superstar, the 1973 movie version. Jesus is walking and there’s this massive crowd following, and they’re jostling to get good views, to see where they’re going. And then Jesus stops and the crowd stops, and Jesus turns around and the crowd goes (gasp). And Jesus begins to talk.
And he says that first, we must hate our family in order to follow him. And then he says, for which of you intending to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough to complete it? Which of you, when you’re taking on a massive project, creates a master plan, a list of supplies, a process of tasks, all the roles and people needed. He says it again about declaring war, but I like the visual of building a tower better.
And so if we are trying to build Saint John’s Church, not just into a tower, a bland building that is tall, invisible, actually into a home, a place where people want to be, where people feel comfortable, where we all belong. If we are trying to build Saint John’s Church into a home, then this is the start of the next step. This is when we look at all we have done. Seriously. Look around. Very impressive. And this is when we start to plan what needs to happen next. Consider where we have been and imagine where we need to go next.
Today is the ministry fair. It was in the parish house before the service. I hope you stopped by to see all the exciting things that are happening. It’s a chance to see all that we are doing, all that you all are doing at Saint John’s Church. And yes, also a chance to see where there might be some holes, what might be missing from the blueprint, so to speak, as we continue to build Saint John’s Church.
Granted, you’ll notice there’s no outreach ministries. I’m saving our outreach for January. So here’s a plug. Save the date January 11th. Outreach ministry fair. Be there.
Today, though you may be our Christian information ministries and our worship ministries and our pastoral care ministries. Our administration ministries and our fellowship ministries. You may be saw music opportunities and children’s opportunities and ways to build community and support one another. And maybe you saw the gaps, the holes, the places where maybe if this was a house, we realized, whoops, we forgot to add closets. I’ve lived in a house like that. It’s not fun.
Yes, this is a chance to show off to one another. Look at all the awesome stuff we’re doing and it is a chance to sign up. Find something interesting and say yes! I want to help build that little corner of Saint John’s Church. And if you see a hole, a piece of the home puzzle that’s missing, tell me and we can build it together.
This is also kick off Sunday. The day we officially start the program year. There are tentative dates for various events over the next year and more to come. There is energy and excitement for what might come next.
The vestry will be unveiling their visioning and project goals for the next 2 to 5 years. That will be shared in October. Stewardship again in October will be asking us to imagine and invest and what Saint John’s could become next. You will be invited to engage in ideas of where we go from here, the next step projects and we will be honoring the foundation laid down over the past 415 years to make us to make Saint John’s Church what it is today.
We can’t be going where we’re going without having been, where we’ve been. And today. Let’s pull out to that blueprint and see what has already been built, and look at where else needs to be done. Welcome back home, Saint John’s Church. Let’s get building.