Preached by Winton Boyd on Sunday, April 11, 2010
Like many of you, when we were looking at the house that became our home, there was one feature that leapt out for us, that moved that house from “mmm?” to “aaah! This is it.” In our case, it was our screen porch jutting out of the back of the house into a mostly wooded lot. It was breathtaking. So breathtaking, in fact, that my father in law turned on his North Dakota charm on the front walk; talking nicely and folksy with another couple looking at the house, in order to stall so that we could have more time.
Knowing that the couple looking at the house right after us had already lost an offer on a house in the same neighborhood, our realtor kicked into high gear. While we were giddy with excitement, she was focused on the end goal – an accepted offer. While we were playful, she helped us stay engaged – looking at the various details of the offer. While we soon became nervous, she never let her sights drift from the ultimate goal: an affordable home in this neighborhood for our young family.
Today, we move to another, more broad based level of visiting in our Seeds of the Next Generation campaign. As we do so, it will be important always, to keep our goal in front of us. Through our Next Generation process, with small group discussions, retreats and Explorer Teams, we have cast a vision for ministry and program into the near future of this congregation. Through a facility improvement team, we have identified ways the building could be enhanced to accomplish and live into those dreams. We are now conducting a capital campaign to raise the funds to enhance the building to deepen and broaden our ministry. All of this has been ambitious. All of this has been time consuming. But, throughout we have had exciting visions.
I thought of this yesterday as I walked into the new awesome awe-inspiring Ley Chapel at our UCC camp, Pilgrim Center. I was there with 14 others from this church on a spring retreat. Walking into that new chapel, which took the hard work, patience, diligence and prayer of so many, was once again amazing. It’s a stunning chapel overlooking Green Lake. It probably helped that earlier in the day we had heard a loon call on the lake. I hope that even if I visit there often, it never loses its ability to take my breath away.
Many of us have had similar reactions when we have seen renderings of what our remodeling could accomplish. While some may have had their breath taken away by the sight of a new boiler, most have been awed by the renderings of a completely redone Friendship Hall, and / or the Worship hall extension that is on our most ambitious plan. If they are breathtaking in the conceptual drawing phase, think what they will be like when done in brick and mortar?
But maybe the phrase ‘breath taking’ is misleading in the context of faith and the church. Maybe what we are doing here is not taking our breath away, but releasing some of our breath in order to make room for the breath of God in our midst. Breath in the language of the Bible is another word for Spirit. Maybe what we are about is “replacing our breath with the breath of the Holy Spirit.” Releasing our breath and inviting in the Spirit.
In fact, this happens all the time.
• The choir sings, and many are filled – not with their hot air – but with the refreshing renewing breath of the Spirit.
• A joy or concern is shared, a baby is baptized, a friend gives us a timely hug – and we are filled with a sense of the Spirit of God.
• In the words or spaces of a sermon, the surprising descant of a hymn, the nuances of the biblical text, the walk of a child or the taste of wine during communion –all become pathways for the breath of God into our lives.
• A guest enters our space, and the sense of community and care is overwhelming.
• Have you noticed over the years how many small, almost imperceptible tears have been shed by “guests” in our midst? What they are feeling is not our breath, but the breath of God.
To be growing in faith, we need a church and a community that continue to replace our anxious, confused, limited breath with the infusion of Spirit breath in our lives.
Just this week, a couple with long roots in this church told me that as they drove to celebrate Easter with family, they talked to one another about the many people in this church, their church, that inspire them, that live lives of the heart, full of the Spirit’s breath. Do you know what a gift that is – that we can feel and know and at times be overwhelmed by the Spirit Breath of God through one another? Do you realize how precious that is in our lives?
But, truth be told, in the cycle of this capital campaign, this sermon is supposed to be about money and giving. A hard topic. We like metaphors of God’s love and grace and tolerance and affirmation. We love supporting ministries of inreach and outreach. But, nonetheless, it is sometimes hard for us to connect Spirit breath with our checkbook and our savings account and our 401K. Through this capital campaign, we are trying to connect these in a way that we have not done before. One of the things this campaign is allowing us to ask ourselves is: If we are inspired by the ministry, if we are inspired by the community and excited for the Spirit’s work in our midst – how can we raise the money to make some of these dreams happen?
The process for inspiring us in our giving is to use a tried and true practice in fundraising – we’re asking for the money. Sounds flip, but truth be told, the biggest reason churches don’t raise money – and therefore don’t accomplish some of their dreams – is they don’t ask for it. The biggest reason those with deep or shallow pockets don’t give to the church is they aren’t asked. Just as likely, there is no compelling vision that actually needs money. So, while this is new for us, this specific asking process, it is quite simple.
We have a vision, we have hopes that we believe in. If they are to be accomplished, if we have a chance at raising the funds to live more deeply into those dreams – we can ask with joy and hope and expectation.
Now, to raise 800,000 – 1.6 million requires more asking that we’ve ever done before. There is no way to reach those goals without asking each of us to give more than we have ever given before. There is no way to reach that range of funds without asking each of us to consider prayerfully, joyfully and deliberately a gift or pledge that is a stretch.
So, we are all getting a letter asking us to prayerfully consider a gift in a specific dollar range. When I got my letter asking me to give to this campaign – it was a ‘breath taking’ letter. Wow! It was a big number I was invited to consider. It took my breath away. It made me pause. It made me think seriously about what kind of commitment we were going to make to this project that we believe in so much. And when the person in our house who pays the bills (not me, nor my son Rein) suggested we consider a number higher than I had suggested, that took my breath away too. Just talking about this in front of you all is a little ‘breath-sapping’ itself.
The crucial point is that what the asking letter we are all getting is designed to do – regardless of what figure is on it, is to help us move from “taking my breath away” to “inviting Spirit breath in.” The letter is designed to move me and you from this is ‘my gift’ to this is a “spirit infused gift through me.”
In each of our homes, in all of our household relationships – we make important, deliberate, thoughtful, and conscientious decisions about how we spend and use our money. Some of us have formulas, some of consult experts in financial management, some of us consult children or parents or loved ones; but we make those decisions on our own. This is as it should be and as it will be.
Nobody in this campaign is trying to mess with those decisions. Nobody is judging those decisions. The leadership of this campaign, however, is charged with reminding us all of this wonderful vision we have set forth. They are charged with inviting us, as we consider our participation, to remember the goal, to remember the challenge, to remember the hope and faith we have in the future of God’s ministry here.
When someone calls and asks you if they can visit – they are a brother or sister in Christ coming to share in this vision of faith. They will come to bring information, answer questions. They come because they believe in this congregation and its ministry. They are not the IRS evaluating your tax return! As you read the letter they will leave with you, remember it is an invitation to participate in this campaign, it is not some group at the church judging your spending habits and income and house size. It’s an invitation to join in this vision, nothing more and nothing less.
As you consider the asking amount in your letter, consider it a “Spirit breath” invitation – an invitation to stretch your giving and spending in a way that is at once both a sacrifice and joyful. It is not a demand. Your gift will not be evaluated against what you were asked. Rather, your gift, whatever it is, will be received as a “god infused” gift and will be received in joy and appreciation. If we raise $500,000, we’ll give thanks to God. If we raise $2 million, we’ll give thanks to God. No matter amount we raise, we’ll give thanks to God because we will know that all of us have participated in this vision and this hope. All of us will feel the pride and joy of watching the building transform before our eyes, and will have the privilege of participating in ongoing and new ministries that have or will emerge.
As your senior pastor, I’m deeply aware that we are feeling both excited and anxious about this process. Excited because we believe in this ministry. Anxious because it’s a stretch. Anxious because it matters in a way few things have mattered in our ministry to date. What I pray for is the ability to hang on to our core values in the midst of it. Spiritually alive, joyfully inclusive, committed to justice. A community seeking God’s grace together. A community that is an intersection between our public faith and our personal faith. If we weren’t a bit uncomfortable, I’d be concerned.
Do you think Doug Piper isn’t a bit nervous leading a building committee on a project of this magnitude? As a grandfather and member of a four generation family in this church, he’s thinking not just about himself, but his grandkids and their faith formation into the future.
Do you think Vicki Nonn isn’t a bit nervous stepping off the organ or piano bench to be our coordinator? She’s doing so because she believes in this congregation, this ministry and this project.
Do you think I went to seminary to conduct fundraising campaigns? Do you think I’m not up at night wondering how this will go, how it will reflect on our current state of ministry? But, I also believe the time is right for this stretch, the time is right for this joyful if challenging project.
Of course we, and many of you, are a bit nervous. Breath out, breath in. Anxiety out, Spirit in.
Toward the end of his live, Jesus offered words that are our text for today.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in them, it is that one that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
On each of the Spiritbuild Mission trips we’ve taken to the Dominican Republic and to El Salvador, we have learned a simple Spanish praise song called “Alabare.” “Alabare mi senor – I praise you God.”
In every setting we have sung that – on the work site, in church, in the hotel or retreat center where we were staying, on the bus: people have joined with us. But what I’ve noticed is when they join in the singing, their whole countenance changes – a joy and a sense of celebratory faith comes bubbling up. On this most recent trip, several of us were trying to deal with the heat and a momentary pause in the work by singing. Eventually we must have run out of Beatles songs, because we started singing “Alabare.” Our head mason, Carlos, an otherwise quiet and unassuming guy, heard us singing, and came running over and eagerly joined in and continued singing Spanish verses on his own. What I saw in his face in those moments as he sang, was the Spirit of the Lord. I saw something coming from a very deep, a very hopeful place in his life. Jesus words, “abide in me, and I in you” are quite apt.
It is that intangible Spirit, or as the old gospel hymn says, that “sweet sweet Spirit” that we seek to honor, celebrate, cherish and join as we gather as the people of God.
• There’s no reason it can’t happen in one-one conversations just as it does in worship.
• There’s no reason the use of our money can’t be a part of that celebration. I recently had a conversation with a young adult who has recently started working, and therefore has only recently had some funds to give away. “I having a blast thinking about who I can share my money with,” he said. That’s the Spirit! That’s the infilling, infusing, encouraging breath of God.
Let our prayer be, breathe on us breathe of God. Fill us with life anew.
Isaiah 43:19
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
John 15:4-5
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in them, it is that one that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
