Sermons

“There Is Still a Vision”
Luke 2:21-40; Habakkuk 2:1-3 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn
Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – December 29, 2019
Worship/Life Series #1

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words, that we might re-commit ourselves to bringing life to your vision for your church. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Happy Five Golden Rings Day! It’s December 29th, which is officially the 5th day of Christmas, and we’ll keep going all the way through the 12th day next Sunday. But we’re also closer now to New Year’s Eve than we are to Christmas, so our focus is shifting a little. There is something of a tension between the contentedness we aim to cultivate during the Christmas season and the desire for self-improvement that is so often in the air as a new year begins. But there’s also something lovely about starting a new chapter fresh from bathing in the hope, peace, joy, love, and general God-is-with-us-ness of Christmas. We know we’ve got to get back to “real life” soon, but we’re encouraged that maybe this time we can hold onto the beauty and wonder of Christmas a little better.
What does it look like for Vista La Mesa Christian Church, as a congregation, to get back on track? It means that it’s time to remind ourselves of our commitment to a dedicated season of cultivating vitality and growth in ministry and membership. And it’s an auspicious time to renew this commitment. When we launched this new season in June of 2018, we said that it would be, at minimum, a three-year process. January 2020 marks the half-way point of those three years. Now, of course, three years is an artificial timeline – a guess, really – or a way of giving ourselves a temporal framework within which to set our goals. But artificial or not, we’re almost half-way there, so it’s a good time to take stock.
Three years may not sound that long, but as we’ve noticed in the past 18 months, it only takes a 6-8 weeks to lose our focus when we’ve got so much going on. Over the last year and a half, we’ve both stabilized our situation somewhat and gotten used to a new normal, which could cause us to slide into complacency. Things feel pretty good, so couldn’t we just relax and let things unfold? But if we review our goals, we will see that we’re not there yet – if there even is a “there” – and we can’t stop now. To say we’re cultivating vitality and growth means we have to do more than just enough to keep us from panicking. Just not panicking is not vitality. A minimum level of stability is not the beautiful vision God is calling us to. So yes, this is a good moment to take stock and see what needs to happen next.
This is an auspicious moment to review our goals for another reason as well. We sit on the cusp of the year 2020, a moment futurists have been discussing for years, including one of our own General Minister and Presidents. Around the year 2000, our GMP at the time, the Rev. Dr. Richard Hamm, led the adoption of what was called the 2020 Vision. He wanted us to understand that God has desires and intentions for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and that there are certain things we need to do to get on board with those desires and intentions. Dr. Hamm had been observing and studying congregations across the church and then set forth some markers and goals for becoming “a faithful, growing church.” The three markers he named were “true community, deep Christian spirituality, and a passion for justice.” In collaboration with this vision, the church adopted four goals to work on between then and now: becoming a pro-reconciling, anti-racist church, starting 1000 new congregations, revitalizing 1000 existing congregations, and developing the leadership the first three goals would require. This vision and its goals were widely promoted throughout the church. Those of you who have a denominational planning calendar can look them up anytime, as they’re printed right inside the front cover, alongside some other helpful information that has been developed since. The front pages of a planning calendar are not really big enough for a runner to read, as Habakkuk might prefer, but they’re certainly more widely distributed than any billboard could be.
If the vision seems to tarry, Habakkuk writes, wait for it; it will surely come. If I compare the church of my childhood with the church of my professional career – keeping in mind that I made that transition right around the time this vision was being developed – I would say that if we haven’t quite achieved them, the church has, at least, taken these goals seriously. As with our own season of cultivation, these goals are the sort that don’t really have a deadline. But 2020 is almost here, so it’s worth finding our own place in this vision. Can Vista La Mesa be one of those 1000 revitalized or transformed congregations?
The goal of bringing new life to 1000 already-existing congregations is the one our church has struggled with the most. Becoming an anti-racist church is obviously a tough slog, but we’ve at least found ways to approach it, and increasing numbers of Regions are requiring special anti-racism training for their ministers. We have people who keep track of the exact numbers of new congregations that are launched. We know how many people are being trained and ordained in our various Regions and ministries. But how do you even tell if a congregation has been transformed, such that you could add it to a “completed” list? In a world that is growing ever more complex, what sort of tools do we offer congregations that want to revitalize?
These are questions we’re still figuring out as a denomination, just as we are working to address them here as a congregation. So perhaps that is our first bit of good news: we are not alone. We are not without companions on this journey into the future, where “we make the road by walking” as the proverb says. I believe there are two other truths that can offer us guidance in this moment, as we enter into 2020, aiming to cultivate vitality and growth.
The first goes back to Habakkuk’s command from God. We need to make the vision plain. When we launched this thing, we just knew that God needed us here and needed us to thrive. Over the past few months, we have realized we need to clarify what that means. So we’ve begun to have some conversations about our guiding values in some of our committee meetings. Our guiding values are what shape the vision of who we are becoming as a congregation. We’ve only just gotten started, but we’ve already bumped up into what I like to call Habakkuk’s billboard problem. As we discussed the guiding values of the Fellowship Ministry Committee, we suddenly wondered what we were going to do with them once we figured them out. It was clear that writing them down and filing them in a binder in the Library wasn’t going to have the effect we needed. And thus was born the idea that some of what we’d agreed on needs to literally be stenciled onto the kitchen walls. Can you imagine working side by side with your fellow church members in a kitchen whose very walls proclaimed things like “This is God’s kitchen”, “Feeding the body feeds the soul,” and “Hold the task lightly”? Big enough for a runner to read, says Habakkuk. Painted brightly enough to be seen even when the air gets a little smoky, we add. This clarifying of the vision, by naming and making explicit our guiding values, will be an ongoing project as we move into 2020. Eventually, I expect, we will bring some documents to the Board and possibly the Congregation, for affirmation. But the process – the conversations – are as important as the product, because those discussions are one of the ways we each make our contributions to the body of Christ. This is good news.
The other thing I want us to focus our attention on, as we enter into 2020, connects us back to the story we heard from Luke a few moments ago. Mary and Joseph had welcomed this astonishing baby into their lives. They’d both received visitations from angels, explaining what they needed to do with him. At some level, it was clear God had called them to something extraordinary. But raising a child is a long-term commitment, with a lot of time between the angel announcements, if there would even be anymore. So here we have Luke telling us how Mary and Joseph went ahead and did the normal, traditional things that all Jewish parents would have done with their new baby boy. When in doubt about what to do next, go to temple and seek out God. And that’s exactly what we need to do. That’s what I need you to do: show up for church. Be here for worship.
There are some basic, practical reasons this matters. If we’re trying to grow our membership, a large part of that is inviting newcomers to worship. It’s much easier to help people recognize our congregation as their potential new church home, if the rest of you are here when they arrive. They need to see that being here is important to you. They need to experience worship as the center of our shared life. They need to know that we take this time together seriously.
But there are even more important reasons why we need each of you here on Sundays. In addition to reviewing Dick Hamm’s 2020 Vision, I’ve been reading another book lately called “How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going.” I’m not that far into it yet, but I am quite certain of this: the author, Susan Beaumont, is going to tell us to ask God for directions. In a season such as the one we’ve committed ourselves to, it is absolutely essential that we listen for God’s guidance together, carefully and continually. Worship is where that happens. Worship is where we are reminded of our purpose and our identity as a gathering of God’s people. Worship is where we remember and name and celebrate the difference that our faith makes in our lives. Worship is where we not only get to ask God for directions, but receive the fuel to continue on the journey. If you only make one new year’s resolution this week, may I suggest that you commit to being present here for worship every single Sunday in 2020, unless you absolutely have to be somewhere else? It’s not as hard as it might sound. But in case you need motivation, let me give you a sense of where we’re going with that over the next few weeks.
This series we have started today, the Worship/Life series, is designed to connect your presence and participation in worship to our broader campaign to cultivate vitality. Next Sunday, Tesa will be offering her perspective on why worship matters. And then, over the next three weeks, we will be exploring the three main elements of our service – prayer, preaching, and communion – and talking about how you can connect with them more deeply. You may learn new ways of looking at things you’ve been doing for years. You may find yourself appreciating things that used to irritate you. You may find your experience of worship shifting. Or you may just sit through a month of what feels like pastor’s propaganda. Regardless of what happens, I hope you will be here. Because your presence here matters.
If there is any lesson we can take from the Christmas story, it’s that the particularity of our flesh matters. You – specifically you – matter. So yes, it makes a difference whether you’re here or not. You are part of the body of Christ, and without you, we are incomplete. Worship is where we re-member that body each week, and if we miss it, our connections grow weak. Vitality comes from nurturing those connections by praying together, exploring scripture together, and sharing in the Lord’s Supper together. Like Mary and Joseph, when we’re not sure what to do next, we need to turn to God to ask directions. Simeon and Anna will show up, offering us revelation and light. And then, as Habakkuk encourages, we can make God’s vision plain, so that a runner or a cook or a passer-by can read it, and know that the vision will surely come. As we welcome in the new year, I pray that you will join with us in re-committing to the vision of vitality and growth that God has planted here. I pray that you will resolve to be here, to be present in worship, to participate with your whole self and listen for God’s leading. We don’t know where 2020 will go, but we know Who will be beside us as the future unfolds. Let us praise God and give thanks! Alleluia and Amen!