Being a Disciple

March 16, 2008 Palm Sunday/Confirmation Sunday Sermon: Being a Disciple Texts: Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29, Matthew 21: 1-11 Today is Palm Sunday and we begin with the parade! There's a parade of welcome to Jesus as a pilgrim coming into the city of Jerusalem to worship. By Jesus' day, Psalm 118 was used as a standard greeting to pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the festivals. "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." It's like our greeters on Sunday morning welcoming people to church. Every Sunday we have a parade of sorts right here in our church. But, our parade on Palm Sunday is a little different. It's a special day that helps us to begin our journey toward recalling the events of Jesus' life and what we call Holy Week. Special parades still abound today that mark a time of the year or a time in your life that has led you to a deeper truth. Can you remember a parade that marked a time in your life? When I was very young, my parents took me to a parade in our small Southern Arizona town of Wilcox. It was big event when Rex Allen rode into town with his trusted side kick on their beautiful horses and wearing shiny leather saddles. My mother tells me that Rex Allen was born and raised in Wilcox desert and, although he became a star in his time, he never forgot where he came from. She said that Rex Allen never forgot that as a child he was helped by the local residents to go to Tucson to receive desperately needed eye surgery. When he returned to Wilcox there was a parade, a great barn dance, square dance, and a friendly Rex Allen who got off his horse to greet the home town people. That's about all I remember but the story is kept alive because of a parade. In the early 80's I had another day to remember, it was a parade of sorts. The setting was a local Roman Catholic Church near downtown Miami, Florida. In that time, I knew the city well. I was on staff of Central Baptist Church in Miami as the youth minister and I taught English to Speakers of Other Languages at the Miami Dade Community College across the street from the church. Like I said, I knew the downtown area and had seen a few parades there but nothing like this one. The sun was going down, the day becoming cooler and more tolerable, and the people were beginning to come out for life in the city. Many people on this day were flooding into the church. The pews were packed, there were people standing in the aisles and as the processional began, we all leaned toward the center aisle to get a glimpse of her. She was small, wrapped loosely in her white habit, and showed a serious but sincere demeanor. The people assisting her up the stairs moved around to find the wooden box for her stand on at the pulpit so we could see her. She seemed small and frail yet giant like in her ability to draw a crowd to her words and her person. Pilgrims had come from many corners downtown Miami to see and hear Mother Teresa of Calcutta talk to us about our commitment to Jesus. She was there to open a shelter for battered women and there were many people who supported her efforts. But, she was also there to ask people to look deeper into their reasons for welcoming her. She had some deeper truth to address in addition to the need to build and counsel and support battered women. She was intent on asking Christians to take seriously their commitment to Jesus. For me, Mother Teresa, even as a Catholic sister, was my role model. I followed her life and her teachings and in my home today are her words that guide my prayers. She said, "Never let anything so fill you with sorrow that you forget the joy of Christ Risen." There is much in life that fills us with sorrow. It was Mother Teresa who inspired me to be the best I could be in my role as a local minister in a Baptist Church, as a teacher at the Miami Dade Community College, as an activist in the in the National Organization for Women advocating for the passage of the equal rights amendment. Commitment to Jesus meant equal rights, fair treatment, and care for those oppressed. I don't think that has changed today. So, I advocate strongly for those who feel they must lobby for fair treatment and civil rights, whatever they are. My commitment to follow Jesus means I must speak out even when I'm told that I should be silent. What about you, has someone helped you to take your commitment to follow Jesus seriously? Has your commitment to follow Jesus helped you advocate for someone who needs you? When I have opportunity, I like to speak clearly about what commitment to Jesus means to me because, I believe, it must start with our personal words from a personal faith. We hope our youth who are confirmed today will understand the invitation to live a life committed to our Christian values and stand firm for what their faith teaches them. We hope they will feel that their faith call them to speak clearly about what commitment to Jesus means for their lives. For all of us who call ourselves "Christian," it is a time to commit ourselves to be voices for truth, justice, compassion and love for all people. We are not to be silent in our Christian churches. If we fall silent, we will miss the opportunity to speak as the Christ would insist we speak. The disciples on some occasions were guilty in the days of Jesus' suffering for not speaking out. How dismal was Peter when he denied commitment to Jesus not once but three times. Luke's gospel tells us that if the disciples were to fall silent, "the stones would shout out." God's truth needs our voices and our hearts to be committed to take action where we know we can take action. In 1932, a very tense year, Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught a group of fifty boys in the confirmation class of Zion Church in a slum section of Berlin, "Behind all the slogans and catchwords of ecclesiastical controversy, necessary though they are, there arises a more determined quest for him who is the sole object of it all, for Jesus Christ himself. What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? How can he help us to be good Christians in the modern world? In the last resort, what we want to know is not, what would this or that man, or this or that church, have of us, but what Jesus Christ himself wants of us." (The Steps of Bonhoeffer, Bailey and Gilbert, p. 47) Commitment to Jesus is sharing a vision of what we want the world to be. In Bonhoeffer's day it was a world of terror and destruction. The question of commitment to Jesus became a threatening question. How grateful we are to live in a country where we have the freedom of worship, of dissent, of expression. We value our church as a place to raise issues and struggle together with what we read in the newspaper and hear on nightly news. Coming together in the church is the place where we find others of like mind who know that primarily, wherever we stand on issues, that our hearts are given to Jesus. That's the whole point of Palm Sunday, my friends. Jesus came to challenge people about what they believed about God and how they followed through on making this truth part of their own. Jesus did not come to the world as a conquering hero, as a politician or a general. He did not come waving political flags, he did not come as a local revolutionary, a national freedom fighter, flashing a sword, swaggering in might and power. No, he came lowly and riding a donkey; he came as a suffering servant. He came to be God's Word made flesh, speaking peace, non-violence and a continual call to commitment be God's blessing to the world. At his last supper, Jesus wanted those around him who would carry on his name and accept his ministry as their own and take responsibility for it, risks and all. Did they take him seriously? No. Was he dismissed? Yes. Jesus will say to Pilate according to the Gospel of John (18:36), "My kingdom is not from this world." The people of Jesus' day misunderstood the true nature of Jesus' kingship. Friends, I hope we don't miss the nature of Jesus' kingship. Jesus is king but a king of peace, not war. Jesus is king when we take every ounce of who we are and let deeper truth permeate our being because we have been in God's presence. We will be better parents, spouses, community organizers, church members, and citizens when we let peace reign in our lives. I'm not talking about only about peace that relates to our national security. I'm talking about peace in our relationships and peace in our dealings with others. I'm talking about peace in the life of the church. Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of truth, compassion and mercy. Peace is working out our conflict with holy creativity and believing that God's Spirit guides, not toward separation, but toward unity of people in their worship and genuine positive regard for human, plant and animal life. Henri Nouwen, who taught us much about the spiritual life, wrote, "As I walk the long, painful journey toward the cross, I must pause on the way to wash my neighbors' feet. As I kneel before my brothers and sisters, wash their feet, and look into their eyes, I discover that it is because of my brothers and sisters who walk with me that I can make the journey at all." (Walk with Jesus , Henri J. M. Nouwen) Last week we heard our five youth who desire to be confirmed today give their statements of faith. Today, they promise before us to be a disciples of Christ. We pray that we will be their sisters and brothers on this journey, being disciples together in faithful love and service of the God in Christ we love and worship. May God journey with us this Palm Sunday toward the cross and may we be committed to being disciples with others who call upon the Christ to be with us in life and death. Truly, may we be Christ's forever and, daily, experience a deeper faith. Amen.

Prayerful Disciples

July 29, 2007 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Sermon: Prayerful Disciples Text: Luke 11: 1-13 Our lesson today is a teaching about prayer and our need to be persistent with our prayer requests. There is encouragement to always ask, seek, and knock. The promise is that God will answer if we are listening. The story is told of a four year old who was spending a night away from home. At bedtime, expecting the usual prompting, she knelt at her hostess' knee to say her prayers. Finding the woman caring for her unable to help her and being somewhat unhappy staying with this person, the little girl prayed, "God, please excuse me. I can't remember my prayers and I'm staying with a lady who doesn't know any." There are times when we feel exactly like this four year old, we can't remember our prayers and there is no one around to help us to remember. Or, we may be like the author who wrote a poem he titled, "I'm Not Sure How to Pray." (Kenneth Phifer, A Book of Uncommon Prayer) How should I pray, O Lord? Should I wait until my life is cleansed and my spirit is hot? Or, should I come just as I am with my half-hearted commitment and my on-again, off-again faith? How should I pray? Should I choose my words carefully and phrase my petitions with discrimination? Should I sit very straight and very still? Or should I let my needs roll out and my doubts and difficulties show? How should I pray, God of morning sun and evening shadow? How should I pray in the high, hot noon of life? I really do not know. (poem goes on but I'll stop there for now) Can you relate? We all can relate, so we, like Jesus' disciples of long ago, come asking "teach us to pray, Lord." In this passage from Luke (as well as in Matthew 6:9-13), Jesus disciples are asking him to teach them to pray. This was a regular custom of a Rabbi, to teach a simple prayer which might be habitually used when bowing to speak to God. The "model prayer" or "the Lord's Prayer" is the prayer Jesus taught them. Since I have been your pastor, I have learned that for you this is a very important prayer, a prayer you pray a meetings or other gatherings often. At the Volleyball game last Sunday evening, it was prayed before the match. So, have we stopped to asked about what this prayer means to us? A few years ago, I met Rev. John Bodycomb, a campus minister from the Uniting Church in Australia, who wrote a little book he titled The Prayer That Could Change the World. He visited Bentley College, where I served as Protestant Chaplain, in Waltham, Massachusetts. The little book is a commentary on this prayer we call "The Lord's Prayer." He believed this prayer that Jesus taught, one that we know by heart, changed his disciples and can change us. The change was about articulating what we believe, how to apply the beliefs to our actions and how to listen and talk with God. Let's break it down the way he does in studying the Prayer more closely. He suggests that the prayer is for us: a model of conviction, a model of conduct, and a model of conversation. How is it a model of conviction? It is about naming God and acknowledging God's presence. When we stop, at a meeting, a volleyball game, or a church service, to say "Father, hallowed be your name, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done" we are affirming God's real presence. God is good and personal, like a loving parent. God is mystery yet God understands and cares for our deepest need. With our opening words to this prayer, we are saying, "may all that is done in my life today bring honor and not dishonor to God's good name." How is it a model of conduct? The prayer addresses our need to demonstrate behavior that is mature and responsible. We do this on a daily basis. We are to pray "Give us each day our daily bread" in a way that is mindful that we need to be thankful for our daily blessings. Sometimes we take our daily blessings for granted. Often, we must learn to live with our past. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." There is the need to live with the past losses, wrongs we have done, the sorrow we wake up to and regrets that linger. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We must be aware that we are creating our future. To do this, we must ask ,"what are my temptations?, what are my tests in life? or what choices do I have? How is the prayer a model of conversation? We pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The prayer is not addressed to ourselves, but to God. It is a two-way conversation, the most satisfying of all relationships. What is our will, what is God's will? Are they the same? Rev. Bodycomb points out in his teaching that prayers sometimes have a danger of being addressed to ourselves rather than God. Our prayer becomes thinly disguised preaching, practical atheism in which God doesn't really matter because we are talking to ourselves. In asking God, "Your Kingdom come, your will be done," prayer is conversation with God, not magic and merely prattling on to ourselves. Our prayer is worshipful recognition that God is continually acting in the world and inviting us to be a part of God's divine activity. God is working for the good of the world, bringing order out of chaos, inviting us to be makers of peace. Prayer as conversation means that we are listening for God to remind us that our doubts, disbelief and anguish do matter. When we do not have answers to our prayers, sometimes we feel our prayers do not matter. We may not understand why we pray for badly needed rain and get none, or ask for a tumor to be healed and it becomes worst. Prayer does not answer the "why." Prayer can give us the faith to live in spite of the lack of answers. We may be like the man who said, "I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered." Jesus taught us to be persistent in our prayers because the promise that God is always there for us: "Be not afraid, for lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." God is listening! We leave today grateful for this prayer Jesus taught us so we may be prayerful disciples. We continue to ask as we pray it, again and again, how is the prayer a model of conviction, a model of conduct, a model of conversation, so we can be drawn closer to the presence of our loving God. I share with you now in closing, the last portion of the poem "I'm Not Sure How To Pray": How should I pray, O God? I do not really know how I should, But I have prayed as best I can. And where I have left unsaid What should have been said, O Lord of the heart, Take the intention for the deed. Amen.

Faithful Listeners

July 22, 2007 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Sermon: Faithful Listeners Texts: Amos 8:1-12 and Luke 10: 38-42 Isaiah 40:21 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?" The question seems to be, are you listening? A middle school Sunday School group worked long and hard making puppets for the Palm Sunday play. The story of the life of Jesus was to be told in their own words. They had permission to "ad lib" their lines. When one of the boys brought the Jesus' puppet back to the disciples a second time, he prayed, "Asleep again! They just don't make disciples like they used to." Disciples are those people who stay awake, aware, curious, and listen! This morning we continue to ask with the help of scripture what it means to follow Jesus and be "awake" with our Lord. We've been reading the 10th chapter of Luke for three Sundays. What have we learned? First, disciples were sent near and far to spread the good news of God's invitation to be part of the Kingdom; disciples were empowered to face the powers of evil and darkness around them. Second, they were told in the parable of the Good Samaritan to be active in ministry, having compassion for the people you do not care for; give them practical assistance-for food, water, shelter, medical care. The focus was on the doing. In today's passage, the focus is on the "listening." Only in this story from Luke is there reference to Martha and Mary inviting Jesus to be their guest in their home in Bethany, about one and one-half miles east of Jerusalem. The other account of the family is from John who speaks about Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus. Our gospel from Luke portrays a picture of Jesus visiting the home of the two sisters, Mary and Martha. They must enjoy his visits. On this visit, it seems that Jesus wants to lift the importance of, not only work as essential as that is, but of the choice of Mary to listen and hear God's Word spoken through his teaching. Mary shows interest and, maybe, opts for quietly listening rather than doing what is expected of her as a woman in the household. Since rabbis of the day did not teach women, this text is somewhat of a revolutionary innovation. Jesus allows Mary to sit and study at his feet. In fact, he seems to indicate that men and women should be studying, not just the men. (A side bar: As in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus continues to knock down the barrier for women or any who would be excluded from being full participants in theological reflection. Jesus affirms the gifts of women to listen and lead!) But, back to main mandate. To stop, listen, reflect on God's Words of comfort, healing and challenge. It is summer and we are outdoors more. Maybe we are busier than ever with little time to sit, ponder, read, or reflect. Since it is summer, we may be more aware than ever of the "noise" in our culture. We live in a culture fascinated with talk so we must work hard to find some time to listen deeply-to God, to others, and to the needs of our world. I had a dear colleague, when I served as pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Walpole, Massachusetts, named Pastor Yoo Cha Yi. She was pastor of the South Walpole United Methodist church near the church I served and we shared summer worship each year. She would graciously invite my congregation to be with her congregation in August so I could get a summer break to be with my family; in turn, I hosted the services at my church during July and enjoyed having the United Methodists worship with us. Yoo Cha and I also tended to our flock with the offer of pastoral care coverage when the other would be away. As I got to know Rev. Yoo Cha, I came to respect and love her for her call to ministry (not easy in a Boston suburb with a congregation where no one was South Korean or spoke Korean!). As a single Korean woman who had not been in this country for a long time, I experienced her as having a fresh, new perspective on living the Christian life in our American culture with our American ways. She loved to tell me the story of how when she moved, with only a few books and floor pillows, her congregation eagerly wanted to furnish the parsonage with all sorts of furniture. She told me how much she loved having no furniture and the simplicity of sitting on the floor on her floor pillows. She was simple and just grateful to be alive. Her personal history as a student activist in South Korea and a forced departure for her safety, gave her much experience in the realm of listening and seeking God's call. One thing I learned about Rev. Yoo Cha, was her enjoyment and devotion to hiking. She was part of two hiking clubs that went up into the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Maine for the best trails. In one her pastoral letters to the congregation she reflected on people with whom she went on hiking trips. Yoo Cha said, "They had lots of knowledge about the mountains that we were to hike and knew the trails well and learned how to quickly and safely conquer the top of mountains. But, at some point, I began to realize that not many were mountain lovers. On the trail my fellow hikers talked about business, school, computers, insurance, exercise, et cetera... But not many people in the hiking group tried to listen to the sounds of the mountains and to feel their presence." She says, "Isn't that the same way with God? We may know all about Christianity. We may be good church goers. But not many of us are God-listeners. We always talk about faith and trust in God, but our faith and trust in God usually seem confined to what we see and have in our hands." Pastor Yoo Cha offers "truthful words" this summer Sunday about what it means to be faithful listeners. She makes powerful statements that invite us to stretch ourselves into the world of the incarnate God. Perhaps Jesus is saying to us some way, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." In other words, the "spiritual" part of Mary is essential. In some ways, I feel I need to intervene and honor our "Martha's'" - men and women who are going, doing, serving the church in numerous unnoticed ways. Martha was not wrong to do her jobs and do them well. Any honest pastor would confess to wanting a busload of Martha's. The gospel is asking us to honor the role of work and the role of listening in our spiritual lives. I've seen many church members in my years of pastoral ministry become "burned out" and drop out of the church altogether because they have not felt appreciated. More than that, they will admit, they have lost the importance of balancing their listening with their serving. What about you? How do you balance? Have you carved a space in your faith life for listening? I read recently, "Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." This is where the second point of my sermon will be made. I want to ask about our "faithfulness" as listeners. To do this, I ask that we consider the lesson from Amos, a lesson that invites the listener to take seriously the call of God to be faithful listeners. This lesson is a pronouncement of judgment by the prophet Amos. Amos, warns of the coming of the "day of the Lord," when God will come to judge all nations. Amos has a vision of a bowl of summer fruit and interprets it as a sign of the coming judgment. Most of us have bowls of summer fruit in our homes, so we get the point, don't we? Time marches by (we see the fruit ripen) and we know that God wants us to pay attention to how we honor God's presence in our lives and this gift of faith. Perhaps we need this scripture about God as judge as well as God as merciful because it will remind us of how much God loves and cares for us. Amos pronounces some harsh words of judgment upon Israel mainly because he knows he's "had it" with God's people and believes that God has had it with God's chosen people as well. They have conducted themselves in a manner that makes them no different from any of their pagan neighbors. They are judged because of their unjust business and economic dealings. "For the God of Israel, business issues are spiritual issues...the condemnation is fierce." (Pulpit Resource, p 19, July 2007) Why would God, who loved and cherished Israel, judge them so severely? The question is in the answer. God loved Israel so much that God would not leave Israel alone. God keeps coming back. God loved them so much that God wanted them to be honest with themselves and face the facts of who they were becoming without God actively present in their lives. The message? They should not separate their faith and from their listening to God's call for how they were to treat others --- the poor, the fatherless, the widow. What do we hear again in the Scripture? Yes, to listen. Truly, God is a God of grace, compassion, and forgiveness, and God, who loves us and wants the best for us, is a God of judgment. One person put it this way: A patient goes to the doctor with a "fever of unknown origin." The doctor performs an examination and runs a few tests. When the data are all available, a diagnosis can be given and a course of medical treatment can begin. Without the examination, little can be done for the patient. Our lives have many parallels to this story. We come to be faithful listeners because we want God to examine us, to give us a course for treatment and to restore us to all we are meant to be, made in God's image. As a church, we gather in worship to take time to listen deeply-to God, to others, and to the needs of this world. How precious is the call to grow in faith and grow in the ability to listen to God. In the Bible, as we have seen, listening is often a metaphor for faithfulness. In our parting, let's be renewed in our desire to be faithful listeners. When Mary listened to Jesus call her by name and allow her to sit a his feet to learn, she no longer was bound by the world's possibilities and impossibilities. Jesus' voice broke through the ways of the world and Mary became unbound by what she could see or hold. She entered a new realm of freedom and knowing. We read hopeful that Christ will indeed call us by our names and allow us to see as we have not seen before. We pray that Christ will come to comfort us and renew us in strength and purpose. We pray that God, a God of grace and judgment, will come to us in our sorrow or whatever our need and give us courage to be witnesses to God's amazing power to sustain and create. Faithful listening? Let me close with poem by a Provincetown, MA, poet Mary Oliver. The short poem entitled "Praying." (from Thirst, pg 37) It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.

Eyes on the Road Ahead

July 8, 2007 Sixth Sunday After Pentecost Sermon: Eyes on the Road Ahead Text: Luke 9: 51-62; Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 The Ford Taurus with the "Driver Education Class" sticker on the trunk pulled out of the high school parking lot with three teenagers and one adult. The teenage girl behind the wheel never seemed to take her eyes off the left side-view mirror. The instructor grew concerned about this odd habit and finally asked, "Why do you keep looking in that mirror?" "My dad said if I can see the white line in my side-view mirror, then I'm going straight." The instructor rubbed his temple and said, "Look, Miss, with all due respect to your dad, you can't be a safe driver if you're always looking backwards. You've got to keep your eyes on the road ahead of you, okay?" This story reminds me of my attempt to teach my son to drive several years ago. He made me very nervous because he drove too fast and he just did not read the signs along the way. He's cruising down the streets of our small town with me saying "slow down" and before we know it, we're on a dangerous one-way street in front of the East Walpole post office. You ask me why I have all this gray hair? My husband, Bill, was much better with him in terms of patience and willingness to let him learn from his mistakes. Do you have "teaching to drive" story? Today's lesson from scripture sounds like a "teaching to drive" story. As you read the lesson you can almost feel the exasperation of Jesus toward his disciples. Jesus is at a turning point in his ministry; he's instructing his disciples, but they keep looking back. He wants his inner circle, those who are his closest friends and disciples, to understand how to keep their eyes on the road. From this world of ours where we teach youth to drive and help them to be good, responsible drivers, we can draw parallels for what it must have been like for Jesus to guide his disciples on the road toward following him and understanding how to make the right decisions along the way. He kept guiding them to anticipate, plan, read the signs and look to the future. Jesus asks people to follow him and gives some guidance as to how to keep our eyes on the road for us to have the life he intended. Jesus gives instructions about how we are to teach, preach, and faithful to winning the world to God's way of love, justice and peace. I'm convinced that Jesus wanted God's shalom, a wholeness, harmony, wisdom and prosperity to be upon all people. Faith should make a difference. Paul will say in his writing, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit." Being guided by the Spirit is the key phrase here because it is the road. I also see the road in other scripture. With regularity we read part of a Christian hymn at funerals, at weddings, or other celebrations of life: The love chapter hymn from I Corinthians 13 is a wonderful guide. We read, "love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth." (I Cor. 13: 4-6) Jesus shows us a way of life that expresses God's desire for God's infinite love to reign. He spells out the alternatives to his disciples by remembering what did not work well. Our Old Testament lesson says that when Elijah was confronted by fifty of the kings' soldiers, he called down fire from the heavens to consume them. But when Jesus was rejected by a Samaritan village, he would not let James and John call down the same fire. Jesus rebuked the disciples for suggesting they "call down fire from heaven" to consume the Samaritan's because they were not hospitable. He was trying to teach them what it meant to be guided by the Spirit. His ministry was not about destroying another, it was about redeeming them. It was about bringing reconciliation not destruction. We have the ministry of risk, of reconciliation, of commitment beyond the bounds of what would be expected. We may have legitimate needs but Jesus said to even reconsider those needs when responding with care for others. We may even find conflicts in decisions we have to make between what society wants of us and what our families want of us. Committing ourselves entirely to God's reign of justice and peace may mean not looking back at what we've left behind but looking forward to what Jesus would want of us. On the 3rd Wednesday morning of the month for about six years, I served the Association Church and Ministry Committee of the Barnstable Association on Cape Cod with nine other lay and clergy persons from our churches. Our responsibility for the 19 churches in the Association was to make important decisions for our churches about the ordination process, the in-care for ministry process, disciplinary action process, plus installations, periodic reviews, and support consultations. It was intense work but it is work that asked us to constantly question, "What would Jesus have us do?" As we opened with this passage for our preparation for a difficult meeting one morning, we focused on the question, "What does it mean to follow Jesus?" One of our lay members of the Committee said "This is a question we must each ask of ourselves." We are each responsible for asking ourselves how we are following. I liked his answer because at the heart of our faith this is a question for every person who carries the name "Christian." Is there sacrifice, is there risk, is there trust in the unknown? I keep reading that God is not in the business of keeping things tidy, nailed down, and predictable. Rather, God disturbs the status quo, breaks open the settled worlds, reverses the world's order, and raises the dead. As I begin my ministry among you, I have much to learn about what you have done here in Christ's name and what we may do together. It is a day for us to begin to ask with sincerity, "What does it mean to follow Jesus?" We ask because we know that being faithful, as individuals and as a congregation, means we take seriously the high commitment that the Christian life asks of us. It is through prayer and study that we are best equipped to keep our eyes on the road ahead. I hope we'll keep in mind some attributes of excellent congregations that have been named as important for healthy, growing congregations: 1) A vibrancy, an excitement about living the Christian life 2) entrepreneurial 3) reach beyond our comfort zone 4) regularly evaluate ourselves 5) have a clear yet changing sense of mission 6) willingness to break up old structures, committees or groups and reassemble. I'll end on the perfect number 7) unafraid of being vulnerable and of making mistakes. Keeping our eyes on the road, keeping our eyes on the call of Christ means asking with humility, "What does it mean to be a practicing Christian? What is our way of being a Christ-like congregation in the world?" In our asking, I pray we'll be determined to keep our eyes on the road for what new way will draw us closer to God's way. This should be our starting place in our preparation for answering questions about our future and what road we will travel on. It's not easy to enter the zone we call risk or new life. But, Christ calls us to be open and receptive to hear and discover something new in God's presence. To be in the presence of God is to be in the zone of risk, of change, reorientation and new birth. "You can't be a safe driver if you are always looking backwards," said the driver's education instructor. "You've got to keep your eyes on the road ahead, okay?" And, we say, Amen.