Under Construction
By Marcia Moret Sietstra
March 25, 2007
First Worship Service, Spirit of Peace UCC
Text: Romans 12: 1-2, 9-18
What an exciting day—after 7 short years of discernment, research, planning, writing a new constitution, choosing a new name and finally construction—we are really here at Spirit of Peace, UCC! It’s been worth the work; the building is quite wonderful isn’t it! It will be a place where generations of people we haven’t even met yet will connect with God. Of course, one can worship any place, even in the humblest dwelling, but there is something about an aesthetically beautiful, majestic space like this, which helps us sense the transcendent dimension of life, particularly when we fill it will great music and inspiring words and friendly faces.
Now, I should tell you that the construction process is not quite complete. We have a few things that still need to be done, and there are some field mice that need to be shown the door. Of course, there are always a few things that need to be changed, but what building is PERFECT the moment you move in? Really, “perfect” is a concept that’s very hard to define.
I recall hearing about a minister who, one Sunday morning, looked out at the congregation and asked, “Does any one of you think you are perfect? If you do, I’d like you to raise your hand.” No one raised their hand. So then he said, “Do you know anyone who is perfect?” One man in the congregation actually raised his hand. The minister asked, “Who do you know who’s perfect?” The man answered, “My wife’s first husband.”
This building isn’t perfect, but it is very, very good; and it is still under construction…in more ways than one. We still have most of the landscaping to do; we’d like a canopy to be put up outside the front doors someday in the future when we can afford it, and a patio added in our lovely back yard off the Community Room. We will need to live in this space awhile in order to develop an integrated plan for the building. In a very real sense we will still be under construction for awhile.
But truly there is another, much more important sense, in which this congregation is under construction. Under construction is an apt metaphor because the church in every age needs to design ways to live as God’s people in a world that is constantly changing. Christians are called to be agents of change, transforming the world so that it more closely resembles the way God would have it be. The Apostle Paul wrote to the young Christian church, “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.” (Rom. 12:2). Our task will never be completed; it will be the job of every generation---to construct ways to build what Jesus repeatedly called the Kingdom of God, by which he meant what the world would be like if God were really king in the hearts of women and men. A world that is being transformed in the direction of God’s will for us is one marked by compassion, regard for ALL our neighbors, everywhere in the world, and peace building through justice.
But figuring out how one lives the kind of life this calls for, has never been easy. One of the most rewarding things we did, when we were discerning whether or not to become the seed community for a New Church Start, was to have an afternoon workshop that helped us look back at the ways Crestwood had tried to live out that challenge in the past. We listened to stories of what people remembered best about Crestwood over the decades, and we made notes on a huge strip of paper that was taped to the walls all the way around the Fireside Room. We labeled sections of the paper by decades, one section for the 1960’s, another for the 1970’s, and so on. And long-time members regaled us with stories about the highlights of each decade. It became apparent that our Crestwood predecessors had a deep commitment to social justice, evident by their engagement of civil rights issues in the 60’s, evident by their ordaining 3 women in ministry ahead of many other denominations, evident by the fact that they gave away so much money to help others. I’m told that at one time their commitment to missions got them in trouble, because they decided to quit cutting the lawn, and let the grass grow so there would be more money to send to missions. Apparently the neighbors had different priorities when the thistles blossomed. Our workshop leader told us that over the decades, as he observed Crestwood from the outside, he always thought of it as being “on the cutting-edge, creatively.” We carry on the tradition of that creative community who took seriously the call to be agents of change in the world.
We are under construction because we are called to construct ways to meet the worlds’ unique needs in our own day. How will we respond to economic globalization, to the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in this world? How will we respond to the false conviction that corporations have an inalienable right to earn profit regardless of the human cost? How will we meet the challenge of global warming, which threatens to destroy our planet? In the words of the poet—nature is full of the glory of God. Will we let it be destroyed? How will we safeguard the rights of our neighbors, including our Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, radical Christian fundamentalist and other neighbors so different from us, but whom we are challenged to respect with the same respect we want for our beliefs? How will we make peace in a world that commits more resources to weapons than to food and healthcare?
Like every generation of Christians, we will construct new ways of being in the world. And we will do that here by constantly going back to the sacred stories of scripture that tell us what makes for a sacred life on earth and by reflecting on what that means for us today. But what we do here will not be repetition of infallible doctrines handed down from the past. It is mind-stretching, sometimes mind-boggling discussion of how we transform the world so that it more closely looks like God would have it be. We will reflect on cutting-edge ideas, in full awareness that we are in the midst of a New Reformation! Joseph Hough, president of Union Seminary, describes this New Reformation in Christianity as being every bit as significant as the one in the 16th century that gave birth to Protestant churches in the world today. This New Reformation is built on better methods of biblical scholarship than we’ve ever had before. Discoveries of ancient, lost gospels and other writings that didn’t make it into the Bible have shown us the variety of ways that early Christians understood Jesus. All of these things have opened up our thinking in dramatic ways.
Diana Butler Bass has a wonderful new book entitled Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith, which she wrote after studying 50 thriving mainline churches. She said these thriving churches are not afraid to ask the “God Questions”. They are not afraid of self-criticism of our faith tradition, nor are they afraid of new knowledge. Bass found that there are a lot of churches like ours, where folks tend not to make grand claims about heaven and hell. Rather, we emphasize life in this world, and look for ways to live morally and grow spiritually.
It is no small task to be under construction as God’s people, in this particular time and place in history. What you learn and experience here can change the world, much like a pebble causes a ripple when it’s dropped in water, and that ripple spreads out in ever widening circles. What happens here can change you too.
Indeed, I need to warn you, that being an active part of this community will stretch your mind and spirit, and maybe even your body, as you attend to the transcendent dimension of your life, and as you build a conscious relationship to the holy, and allow it to be expressed in the way you live.
There is a mysterious and marvelous thing that happens to people who consciously work at being God’s change agents in the world. One day, you will look back and realize that you have changed. Just as you mature and age physically, intellectually and emotionally, your spiritual life is intended to mature. The faith that served you as a youth is rarely adequate when you are old. But it takes work to build the spiritual dimension of your life, just as surely as building these walls took work! Your faith should be built as carefully and with as much energy as this building, because, like this building, your faith needs to last a lifetime…your lifetime! Here, good people will help you ask the hard questions like, “Who am I, really? Why am I here? What does God want me to do with my life?”
Here you will be invited not to escape life for 1 hour on Sunday, but to embrace life more deeply through personal spiritual formation. You can come anytime during the week to do walking meditation on our new labyrinth or to pray in this sanctuary. You can choose to be part of a number of learning experiences and social groups, so that you form the kinds of relationships every person needs.
Changing and being agents of change is a life-long process. You are never too old to grow spiritually, just as the picture on the front of this bulletin suggests! What a great picture! It reminds me of one of our most active members. June is 82 years old, and a member of our Building Committee. Before that, she was on the Visioning Task Force and she served as moderator 4 years ago. She is part of our Progressive Theology Group and Adult Forum, and she’s going to General Synod in Hartford in June— demonstrating that you are never too old to grow! The more attention you give to your spiritual formation, the more you will discover your inner space will enlarge with a sense of purpose and completion, until your life becomes your offering back to God.
Little by little, each of us will add to the building of the one and only precious life we have been given. Look around you—look to your left, now to your right—these dear people will help you enlarge the inner spaces of your life by sharing rituals, by studying and discussing together, by bumping up against each other’s ideas, by serving together, by sharing in one another’s lives, and through it all, by loving you into being the best person you can be.
Yes, “under construction” is an apt description of us, as a congregation and as individuals. It is a realistic description of where we are today, and it is a positive statement about where we hope to be tomorrow.1 May God bless us as we live out our task. Amen.