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November 15, 2009 A Bleak and Uncertain FutureGrace and peace to you. How many of you were here for worship on April 12 of this year... Easter Sunday? What I'm about to say will sound familiar to you. If you weren't here on Easter Sunday, let me explain. For as long as I can remember, both as a one who grew up in the church, thus being present in worship on 50 Easter Sunday's and as a pastor, the Easter Gospel was always the resurrection story written in the Gospel of John. Someone was tired of preaching on this great story and talked someone else into using the resurrection story written in the Gospel of Mark; seemed like such a good idea two months earlier when PC and I were doing worship and sermon planning. Even two weeks before Easter using Mark's gospel made sense. However, as those who were there know... studying and writing that Easter sermon turned out to be a train wreck. You know how history has a way of repeating itself... Today's readings from the apocryphal book of Tobit and Mark's gospel are the appointed readings for this Sunday; they're part of what's called the lectionary, a collection of bible readings chosen for each Sunday of the Church year. Two months ago in our planning, using both on what we'd chosen to be Commitment Sunday made sense; wrote down a page of notes to use as the basis for the sermon. I finished writing that sermon on Friday. It ended up reading like a dark comedy, having elements of comedy and tragedy; Good News/Bad News jokes and the story of Charla Nash, the woman savagely attacked by her friend's pet chimpanzee, who unveiled her grotesquely deformed face for the first time. As a sermon, it was a complete dud. I spent yesterday trying to figure out what it was about today's two readings that was giving me such interpretive and sermon writing fits. I studied again the story the Book of Tobit tells:
I did the same with the Gospel reading from Mark:
Suddenly it became clear why these two readings were giving me such fits; both stories are teaming with bleakness and uncertain futures:
I'd venture to say, that for most of us the past year, at one time or another, has been consumed with bleakness and uncertain futures:
It's been a bit bleak and uncertain here at St. Paul's, too; primarily our financial health. As was reported in the November newsletter, we have a budget deficit of over $40,000.00. Although it is still possible for us to break even at the end of the year, it will be a tremendous stretch. I tell you this not to create guilt or resentment of any kind, but simply to be up front about where we stand as a congregation. As was mentioned in the Greeting and Welcome, next week our nation celebrates "Thanksgiving." Although this is a secular holiday, giving thanks is a spiritual principal. We have the opportunity to give thanks for God's blessings every week when we come to worship. Once a year, we are asked to give thanks by giving an estimate of our financial giving for the coming year. Today is that day... today is Commitment Sunday. How will we do this? In the face of what at times may feel like a bleak and uncertain future, don't we tend to withdraw... don't we tend to keep all that we have to ourselves? "It's only human to cling tightly to what we know, what we have. Maybe it's divine to give birth, sometimes painful birth, to a future that is new. Perhaps we come to church to learn how to look for God's hand, even in the news that seems bleak and uncertain, to expect God to work, to continue to create good news." The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams addressed the bleak and uncertain future of the Church of England two weeks ago by saying, "God knows what the future holds for any of us for any of our ecclesiastical institutions but we can at least begin with what we can be sure of: that God has graced us [and] God has been credible in [God's] fellowship with God's people. And, at times when the future seems more than usually chaotic and uncertain, it doesn't hurt simply to give thanks." That's what this day is all about. It's a day to simply give thanks. It's a day to give thanks that God has graced our lives with all that we are and all that we have and all that we need. It's a day to give thanks that God still desires to be in a relationship with us. It is a day to trust that through us and through our financial gifts, God continues to create good news, even in the most bleak and uncertain future. Today is Commitment Sunday... now it's time. Time for us as sisters and brothers in Christ to walk to the altar, our financial commitment in hand, and in the face of what may feel like a bleak and uncertain future... simply give thanks |
St. Paul's Lutheran Church § 824 N. Lewis § Waukegan IL |
