September 11, 2022

 This summer our church joined together with some of you for Vacation Bible School.  Each day we went to the park because we don't have a nice grassy area at our church to play on plus it made a really great way of talking about the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.  We had a wagon ready in case the littlest ones grew tired, we could pull them along.  However, when we asked the littlest ones if they wanted to ride in the wagon, all 3 of them said, "I do it myself!" and sure enough they walked all the way to the splash pad and everywhere else we trekked that week on their own little legs.  The littlest ones had years of riding in strollers and being hauled around and they were tired of it.  It was the older ones that wanted to ride in the wagon.  We had plenty of volunteers among the 4, 5, and 6 year olds but no one wanted to pull them in the wagon because they were too heavy.  

Today we hear the story of a sheep that got itself lost.  This sheep was happy with the flock, but got to eating, kept its nose to the grass eating all day and by the time it looked up, darkness had descended and home and family and comforts were all gone, there was nothing familiar in sight.  This sheep was lost and was not going to be able to find its way back home on its own.  There was no “I do it myself for this lost sheep.”

Today we hear the story of a coin that maybe rolled, maybe fell, maybe got buried under something else, but this coin now sits in alone without any ability to get itself back to its proper place.

For many of our churches, we have worked to do it ourselves.  That's what success looked like.  It looked like having our own youth program, our own seniors program, having our own building, our own projects.  We have had our own choirs and our own musicians, paraments, our own pews and property and employees.  But just as the coin cannot find itself and the sheep cannot by its own power get home again, we find ourselves just a little bit lost these days. 

I heard someone say this week, this pandemic has been a natural upsetting of the fruit basket.  Our patterns have been disrupted our plans upended over the past couple of years.  Our basket has been dumped over and there is fruit all over the floor.  Our usual way of doing things has been upended.  We have hybrid church.  We take communion from pods.  I am still very shaken because I can't guarantee I will be able to visit my people in the hospital because of Covid protocols.  People ask me how many people go to my church and I have to say, "I don't know."  I don't know because some are in person and some are online.  Our fruit basket has been upended.  Look at how many new leaders are serving in our God's Work, Our Hands participating churches--all of us.  [So many new pastors are serving that none of us pastors have participated in this service in this cluster before.  We didn't even know that usually there is no preaching at GWOH service but instead people give reports and testimonies about their service project.  I only just found out last week.] My fruit basket is all over the floor, my coin is lost, and my sheep has wandered.  How about you?  My life is still anything but normal.

In this moment of the fruit basket being upended, we can say what we like to say, "I do it myself," or we can look around at all the other upset baskets around us.  We can be in this moment of chaos and look around.  I think usually I get so nervous wondering if anyone saw my mess, saw my clumsiness, my vulnerability, I get so busy cleaning it up and trying to make it look like it did before, that I don't see how many of my neighbors are also dealing with an upset fruit basket.  In these times, we are in a little different situation because everyone's life has been upended and instead of blaming someone for the chaos their life is in or blaming ourselves for this mess, we can blame the pandemic and doing so have compassion on others who are struggling, who don't have as many resources to put everything back. 

            This moment of chaos is an opportunity which could take a number of different forms.  One is that we can take this opportunity to look at the fruit one by one and see is it worth keeping or should it be used in another way--made into applesauce or banana bread or compost.  For all the committees and habits we have in our basket, is everyone of them fulfilling their purpose of serving God and serving the neighbor?  This is a time to examine what we do and why we do it and see what is worth keeping and what can be discarded.  

This may be an even greater opportunity to be in the chaos and mess, to look to a neighbor and show our mess and see their mess and see if we might not do it ourselves, but maybe there is a chance to work together to make something of all this upset, not necessarily cleaning it up, but acknowledging the feelings of inadequacy and isolation or whimsy or whatever you feel when your basket is going everywhere and everyone knows it.  This is an opportunity to ask whether we even need a fruit basket or not.  This is an opportunity to see if it’s time to leave our basket empty for a while or put something else in there or pile our fruit together in one big basket.  Who does it serve to have everything looking tidy and together, to pretend that we aren’t lost or struggling?

We come together today, the lost coins and the lost sheep.  We don't know what we're doing.  We're not going to find ourselves.  We need the shepherd.  That’s part of the reason we’re here.  Good news is, the shepherd is longing for our return, is actively pursuing us and is really good at finding us because the shepherd made us, knows us and loves us.  So we are the fruit laying all over the floor and we are being gathered.  There is one who knows our value beyond anything we can do for him--Jesus wants to relate to us and so he does, seeking us and finding us, not so we can be by ourselves, so we can be in relationship with him and his body, the church, the communion of believers.  

This weekend we have fallen on the floor, rolled under the chair, gotten lost in the couch cusions, and are finding each other a little bit more.  Through these service projects we are find community and common work, we are sharing our gifts and talents with the community and each other.  Through this worship service we are joining our voices to praise God.  Through the meal we are about to eat we will find nourishment and strength [and recipies.]  Today we bring our strengths together, but lets not forget to bring our vulnerability--what hurts, what is lacking, our grief and confusion and lostness, because then we will be ready to be found by Jesus our Savior and by each other.  Then we will be ready to partner with others because it is all too obvious that "I do it myself" isn't working.

                God has a vision in which all crying and pain will be no more, all lost sheep and coins will be found, and Love and justice will be at the center with Jesus our Savior.  We come together on this day to live into this vision, to get a little more of a glimpse of this Kingdom that God is bringing, to experience it together.  [We celebrate together once a year and we dabble in building relationships between our congregations, but] let’s not forget the opportunity of this chaotic, messy moment to look at one another as true partners, part of the body of Christ with us, and find where God is knitting us together even more, where our baskets might be shared, where we can’t and don’t want to do it ourselves but can partner and work together.

            Let’s not do it ourselves anymore.  Let’s bring our hands,  our eyes, our ears, our hearts together and really find each other and be willing to be found, in community, in the body of Christ, in true partnership as God builds the Kingdom in our midst.