Homiletical Saturation

I have just returned from a first - my first Ascension Day service of worship. It took place at Peachtree Rd. United Methodist Church in Atlanta and was a culmination of a week where 2,000 or so preacher from across mainline denominations (folks like Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, even a few Baptists, and of course us Presbyterians) gathered to listen to sermons for a change and also listen to some of the best preachers in the nation talk about their craft.

The sanctuary of our host congregation can hold 1500 persons - and it was full! This is a magnificent worship space full of beauty and majesty. (How nice to know that large sanctuaries don't have to be bare auditoriums.) We were blessed to hear Hayden and Beethoven sung by a 75 (I think I counted right) voice choir accompanied by an ensemble from the Atlanta Symphony. Sitting in the balcony, singing "Crown Him with Many Crowns" with the festival trumpets blaring at my back was an amazing experience.

I've always been impressed by the Festival of Homiletics, and that respect is only deepened this year, for this year's edition was filled with new voices, young clergy, and young talented musicians. Most of all, I appreciate the openness to the movement of God in the world. This is not the "dying mainline," entrenched with unchanging tradition. This is a vibrant mainline willing to be honest about the challenges it faces, open to change, but also unashamed of the vital core of faith that is its heartbeat. We heard from pastors of "cutting edge" churches, sang the music of young composers, and dialogued about how traditional churches can speak to an nontraditional world.

Ascension Day celebrates the ascension - the lifting up - of Jesus forty days following Easter. It remembers the departure of his physical presence. It prepares us for the Day of Pentecost when his spiritual presence and power were unleashed upon the disciples and the world. They still are! May that be true for the saints of Seneca Presbyterian Church, where we worship in slightly less grand but just as majestic space, to the glory of the same God whose love is never changing, yet always being made new.

At Home with Jesus

This Sunday at Seneca Presbyterian Church, we will continue our exploration of being a "sailboat church." Last week we talked about dreaming God's dream and thus becoming partners with God in the re-creation of the world. This week, we will talk about how. The answer is simple: abide.

The image comes to us from the Gospel of John. You'll find it in chapter 15, which is part of the amazing farewell discourse Jesus shares with this disciples in John. It is the night of his betrayal and arrest. This night will be his final opportunity to teach them as the Jesus they know. So Jesus talks to them of servants and masters and friends; of love and the Spirit and the gift of peace. He teaches them for four chapters - chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16. And then Jesus prays for them (and for us) for an entire chapter (ch. 17). Where Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us the Last Supper, John gives us foot washing - and words that have nurtured faith for centuries.

I am the vine, Jesus says, and you are the branches. Abide in me as I abide in you. Unless you do that, nothing is possible. It is the symbol that Jesus uses to describe what lies at the core of discipleship and at the heart of faith.

To abide means to rest, to stay put, to make a home and to stick with it, trusting that it is the right place to be. So what does in mean for us to abide in Jesus? We'll talk about that Sunday. Here are some thoughts to ponder.

How do you stay connected - abide - in Jesus? What activities or experiences or disciplines bring you closest to that flowing lifeline of faith?

What does it feel like to be pruned? What experiences in your life have seemed like pruning? In the end, did you find new life?

What fruits have come from your abiding - in your life and in the life of those around you?

Consider the image of a vine as a metaphor for the Church. How does it strike you?  Where's your branch? How's your fruit?

Dreaming God's Dream

Seneca Presbyterian Church is engaged in its annual stewardship campaign. Perhaps that strikes you as odd coming in the spring of the year. It's a bit new for us, too, since we are transitioning to a July/June budget cycle and away from a typical calendar year. The reason is simple. When our dedicated volunteer treasurer says he would like to have his Christmas and New Year holidays back, I say let's move to a July/June budget year! I want to thank everyone at Seneca Pres for bearing with us. Your cooperation is evidence of your openness to change, which is a good thing.

This spring finds my family in a new house, one that I love. I serve a congregation of amazing people who truly believe in serving God through serving others. Our youngest child is about to graduate from college. Our oldest son has a good job and a good wife. Our daughter is about to begin medical school. God is good and I am grateful - two affirmations that lie at the heart of faithful stewardship.

But am I called to give back to God simply because I am grateful? If we at Seneca Pres truly aspire to be a sailboat church - if we truly want to risk capturing the wind of the Spirit and soaring with the power of God's calling for us, then stewardship is about more than just simple gratitude. It's about partnership with God. It means being open to directions that may lead us to uncharted seas and daring challenges. When that happens, we will have to trust God to lead us in the right way, even if we don't know the outcome and can't see the destination. It means trusting that God can do more than we can even dare to imagine.

Faithful stewardship is one of those sailing skills. Do we trust God even with our resources? Are we willing to put action behind that trust?

I care about the outcome of our stewardship campaign for lots of reasons. The obvious one is that we need to maintain the ministries we already have. Beyond that, we need to expand the ministries we already have - we need to dream bigger and dare deeper.

But the most important reason I care about our stewardship campaign is more pastoral and personal. There is no stronger indicator of our devotion to God than how we use the resources God has given us - our time, our talent, and our treasure.

On Sunday, we will catch a glimpse of God's dream for our world. That dream is found throughout scripture, but for me the most complete image is found in Isaiah 65:17-25. Partnering with God to enable that dream to become reality is our calling and our ultimate destination. It is a partnership well worth the investment of our time, our talent, our treasure, and our lives.