wfn.org | Annual Conference Sermon - July 1, 1998

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(This text was submitted in advance of Annual Conference)

Annual Conference 1998    					Wednesday evening, July 1, 1998
Orlando, Florida

Preacher: 		Elaine Sollenberger

Sermon title:      “Living the Connection”

Scripture text:	Psalms 119:89-96
			      Hebrews 11:4-16

You and I have the next 18-20 minutes to be together in the presence of God
and to join our thoughts around the concept of faithfulness. I want to go
beyond the confines of this auditorium and draw on the wisdom of three old
timers, characters from the Hebrews 11 drama. Those three are Noah, Abraham,
and Sarah. I’ve written their script for this time and I’ll be their voices to
us.

First, hear from Noah: Let me start by saying that if you ever want to get the
attention of your neighbors and friends, get out your tools, prepare some
lumber, and start building an ark. This will be especially effective if you
live on a desert, where the sun has full control of the sky with no clouds to
interrupt its shining. (Somewhat like Orlando at the moment.) When the
onlookers ask, “What on earth are you doing?” Just say matter of factly, “God
told me to build an ark, and that is what I am doing.”

God did speak to me one day and called me to carry out a rather unusual task.
I was to build a large boat; the instructions were quite specific. In the
beginning I did not have complete understanding of God’s plan and vision for
this project. In faith, I answered God’s call to me by gathering up the
necessary materials and tools and going to work.
-2- Wed. p.m. worship

Under clear blue sky and full sun, I began to build a seaworthy vessel. It
would take time and patience. I gave it both. Once I began, I never looked
back or reconsidered.

Friends, neighbors, family, and passersby all watched me working and found the
project somewhat ludicrous. Gossip and criticism were rampant; offers to help
were not forthcoming. The project was dubbed “Noah’s Folly.” Common belief was
that I had abandoned every thread of good judgment I ever possessed, and I
must certainly be living out a fantasy.

I continued to build, and I spared nothing in the quality of my workmanship or
in the materials I used. I patiently and faithfully worked to complete what
God had called me to do.

I believe that building up a church has elements in common with building an
ark. First, it requires accepting God’s call and vision and becoming partners
with that. Commitment to the task and patience for the long “haul” (term) are
essential. Not everyone will share the vision. Often, and rightly so, the
church is out of sync with the society and world around it. Acknowledging that
must never diminish one’s faithfulness. Just remember that in the light of
goodness, evil stands condemned. Those who receive and acknowledge God’s call
must remain faithful.

Hear these words from Abraham: I did not want to leave my homeland. I liked it
there; life was good for me and my family. I expected to live out my days on
earth living where I was and doing what I enjoyed.

Then God called. That call required that I leave my homeland. It meant leaving
my roots and exchanging the security I knew for the uncertainty of sojourning
into the unknown and unfamiliar. Taking our tents for temporary homes, we set
out, fairly unclear about where this would lead us. Going forward in faith
usually means not knowing the full detail at the moment and certainly feeling
unsure about the final outcome. Charting a new course requires vision, a great
measure of patience, along with a spirit of adventure—including the inevitable
risks—but a spirit that looks beyond the moment and considers what may be
ahead.

God continually calls those who will follow to consider new beginnings, to do
some “tent moving,” driving the stakes into unfamiliar turf, even without
assurance of the final outcome. Uncertainty is part of the vision;
faithfulness is a requirement.

Get ready for Sarah: I was in the 90 + age range when God called me to become
a parent. At that moment the cynical part of me came forward, and I laughed
right out loud at the prospect. “But God,” I said, “That’s not something we’ve
ever done before. It’s impossible! Wait ‘til I break that news at the Senior
Center. You really aren’t serious, are you?”

God’s response to my disbelief and frivolous response went something like, “I
am about to do a new thing, Sarah. Can you not understand it? Your descendants
will be as numberless as the stars in the heaven and the grains of sand by the
seashore.”

Incredulous as all of this seemed, I still trusted God. Abraham and I talked
about God’s expectations for us, to become parents at our advanced age! We
both knew and believed that what may not be humanly possible, can be divinely
possible, especially if the humans will accept God’s vision for them. Our
faithfulness guided our acceptance and having done that, arm in arm, we walked
out into the night, looked up into the heavens, and began counting stars.

Sisters and brothers, our denomination has experienced a year of abundant
change—change in organization, change in leadership, change in program, change
in perspective. The gamut of those changes has run from timely to questionable
and many points in between. (I won’t elaborate on that now.)

One of the traveling companions of change is chaos. Author Gilbert Rendle,
says that an expected consequence of change is chaos. Change can also bring
renewed vision, fresh thinking, new commitment, and creativity. Rendle calls
chaos creative space and suggests that those who may doubt that should go back
and reread the Genesis account of chaos in God’s hands becoming creation.

In a time such as this, we can turn again to the three personalities from
Hebrews for some guidance. They, as well as others, exhibited faithfulness by
being open to God’s call, listening when it came, starting from where they
were, with what they had and knew, and becoming partners with God in
perceiving and understanding the vision, and then not looking back but always
looking forward.

Faithfulness requires imagination and intuition. Always there is some mystery
related to perceiving the vision God invites us to share. It calls for some
passion to participate in the vision. I believe it is that kind of passion,
imagination, intuition, and perception that led the Church of the Brethren to
give birth to missions in Nigeria, India, Ecuador, and other places; to
initiate a volunteer service program; to guide us into ecumenical
relationships with other Christians. Initiatives for those ventures came with
risk, with uncertainty. I suspect there were even chaotic moments. Some
probably tended to dub them a “Noah’s Ark” kind of endeavor. For some it meant
leaving their homeland and taking up tent-type living. But here we are this
year celebrating anniversaries of 50 and 75 years for some of them. It should
lead us to raise the question: What are some of the new levels of equally
creative ministry and mission waiting for us to catch the vision, hear the
call from God, and lead the way for their beginnings and growth?

During this past year I have spent considerable time traveling with USAir. It
gave me the opportunity to read the editorials by Chairman Stephen Wolf in the
monthly publication, Attache. Recently he wrote: Change does not include
continuing to do that which we do today tomorrow. It means doing it
differently, or more, or better, but not as presently. He suggests the key
element is expectation. Using the metaphor of the high jump or pole vault in
track events, Wolfe proposes that we need to continually raise the bar. Aim a
little higher than the last time.

Catholic writer, Joan Chittester states it this way: What we were intended to
do in the past is now done. It is not a failed past, rather it is a success
and a transition to the new.” She continues, “The old religious life is not
dying. It is long dead. The only question for us now is, ‘What do we want to
be caught dead doing?’” The earlier question comes again: What are the new
levels of equally creative ministry and mission waiting for us to catch the
vision, respond to God’s call, and lead the way for their beginnings and
growth?

As expected with questions like that, we don’t answer with one voice, even in
the Church of the Brethren! Among us we hear the call differently; among us we
will give a variety, possibly contradictory, responses. Some want to look back
and long for what used to be, some resist the forward look and movement. The
new is not the same for all of us. And factoring into all of that is the
reality that we aren’t always adept at understanding our differences or at
working them out.

We like to use body analogy to describe the church and propose that the parts
of the body need to work together toward a unifying whole. The intention is
very good; in actuality we often fall short of that. Someone has suggested
that in our talk of the body and its various parts, we miss a vital part of
the analogy. Along with the eyes, the ears, the arms, etc., we should also
include the muscles and the nervous system. Muscles are designed to work
against one another or they don’t work at all. Likewise, the nervous system
runs on energy composed of positive and negative charges, pulling and pushing
in order to create the dynamic that lets them function. Could that suggest to
us we should be affirming rather than lamenting the push/ pull, positive/
negative elements? Could that be one of our strengths rather than considered a
weakness?

Malcolm Warford says, “We Christians have become so accustomed to being
critics, we’ve lost many of the practices that enable us to create and bring
forth, to be innovative.” Put it another way—it keeps us from raising the bar.
It prevents us from doing the things we would like to caught dead doing!

Coordinated tension is a source of power. I believe one of the best gifts we
might give to each other is to acknowledge the faithfulness among us, even
those with whom we differ. Let the differences be what they are; those will
always be with us—thankfully. Let the affirmation of our faithfulness be the
coordinating and guiding principle that gives us our strength. In
faithfulness, some among us give evangelism priority. All of us can affirm
that faithfulness. In faithfulness, some among us give priority to social
justice. All of us can affirm that faithfulness. In faithfulness, some among
us give ministries of compassion and caring priority. We can affirm that
faithfulness. When all of that comes together, it can be powerful.  Perhaps
it’s the muscle/ nervous system working at its best. The differences are part
of who we are and who we always will be. Let them take their role. Let our
unity be our ability to recognize the faithfulness of each other and validate
that.

Scott Peck would say that organization can cool chaos, but that does not lead
to community. Somehow we need to find the grace to value those things we have
in common as well as those we do not. Finding that grace and extending it to
one another could be the means of holding this body together. At this time in
our lives, one of the things we need most is to find ways, or the way, to hold
this body, the Church of the Brethren, together during a time of some
uncertainty and some lack of clarity about who we are. Holding this body
together is vital for its stamina, its growth, and for its ability to hear and
receive God’s call to us.

This was not in my original script, but I want to include it. After William
Sloane Coffin had to cancel coming and speaking to us Friday evening, he sent
me a copy of what he might have said. I want to quote a brief part. “Once
again it is up to us, to those furthest from the seats of power and thereby
nearer to the heart of things—those seated on the mountainside whom Jesus
called “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world.” And I ask you, “Has
common humanity ever received so high a compliment from so informed a source?”
So let us not wear an air of futility like a crown of thorns. Let us not
hesitate to lead.” 

As the call came to Noah, Abraham, Sarah and others, likewise, the call comes
to us, the Church of the Brethren, to lift our eyes beyond our time, to leave
our narrow horizons, and to venture into the yet unknown. That call invites us
to link our faithfulness—imperfect and incomplete though it is—to God’s
faithfulness . . . so that God is—pleased, gratified, maybe even proud, but
not ashamed to be called our God.