conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

shared sermon

Here is my third of the combined sermon. The whole sermon will eventually go up on the church blog.

Our coming together has not been without challenges and questions along the way. One challenge has been the one of timing; the when�s. At first, it was �When do you meet?� This was hard to answer, but became less so. When did you start this project? Oh, my�this is a question that is responded to with another question: Which beginning?

There was that day when David Gortner and I cornered one another. Did it begin then?

We had a Disciples of Christ pastor, Jennifer Kottler, involved briefly as well. She and David have been acquainted for years. Did it begin then?

One night there were several of us gathered around a table in the lounge at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary for our first dinner together trying to figure out what we might be called to. Did it all begin then?

When did the congregation begin? When will it come to fruition and what will it look like? I simply have not had answers to these questions.

Tonight, as we officially begin the life of this congregation I am aware of how we have been worshiping together for many months at the Community of the Holy Trinity. There are some in this room who have been waiting, dreaming if you will, for more than a year. Tonight is hardly the beginning.

Our dreams have collided with one another: dreams of monastic community in an urban setting; dreams of ministry to young adults in Chicago; dreams of ecumenical communities attempting to bridge great distances within and without. We have been living into this vision, we have been waking dreamers our entire lives. As we gather tonight, I am aware of how this beginning, no matter how much energy we have behind it, is still living into the question of �When?� This is not the beginning, but a point on a journey. Or, perhaps, it is one beginning among many.

And is that not the precarious joy of Advent? We await the coming of the Lord, he who has come, he who has been present since the beginning. Is it not true that this dream, this waking dream for some, has been with us since the beginning?

2:3 Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

2:4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

This is Isaiah�s hope, a proclamation of things to come that is revealed in the present but are not yet�an old testimony to a present reality.

13:11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;

13:12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works
of darkness and put on the armor of light;

Once again, our brother Paul brings our attention to this quandary of a nearby salvation. Our salvation is near to us, but not in our grasp. It is near to us, we can feel the warmth of it, we may even change how we live, proclaiming Emmanuel, God is with us, and yet it is not ours.

This congregation is near to us. We are in the midst of it, this ecumenical vision, our own attempt to live into the saving grace of God. It begins tonight. It began many months ago. It will continue in our waking dreams. So too will it be always out of reach, not quite complete.

Posted by tripp at November 28, 2004 12:29 PM