September 9, 2007
15 Pentecost, Jeremiah 18:1-11
Is it too early to talk about Christmas shopping. I realize it’s only September, but I thought I’d try to beat the retailers to the season this year and say a few words about the shopping experience. As a clergy person, I have to be thinking ahead to things like pageants, and carol sings, and hanging candles over the altar, but as a husband and dad, I find it is never too early to start thinking about the hunt. The hunt, of course, is about survival. We know that from anthropology 101. The hunt is a journey into the unknown, usually taken up by the men of the tribe, and it is fraught with all sort of hidden dangers. Gone are the days when a new electric skillet and a package of ribbon-tied smelly soap could bring a smile on Christmas morning. Dad had it easy.
These days, one has to be conversant in many fields before venturing out in search of the perfect present. I was tripped up a few years ago by a dress store that has it’s own sizing system. Mary had pointed something out one evening as we walked by, but when I discovered they only sold sizes 1-4, I didn’t have the heart to tell her she was out of luck. It is amazing how many kinds of knitting needles there are, and how many different kinds of stuff they can make socks out of. It takes a certain amount of study, this shopping business. I mean you really don’t want to set without having at least some vague idea what color ecru is. I find the best way to approach the hunt is to settle on what I am after before I leave the house.
I’ve never been able to wander aimlessly from store to store hoping to stumble onto something perfect. It is so easy to be distracted by all the sounds and the crowd, the flashing lights and music of the mall. I prefer to know what I’m looking for. I want some idea of what I’m after. That way if I am actually approached by a salesperson who asks, “can I help you find something?” I can say quite boldly, “why yes, I’m looking for a light blue cashmere sweater, size small, round neck, for about half the price of the one down at Nordstroms.
Though we all know the Church’s liturgical year begins in Advent, we know too that the church gets busy at the end of summer when school starts. This is the time when activity picks up around the church with Sunday school starting, adult classes being offered, evening events, book groups, prayer groups.....it seems like summer is barely over and the next thing you know it is time for the carol sing. As this new year in the life of St. Aidan’s begins, it might help us all to have some idea of what it is we are looking for.
Why are we here? What do you seek in this community? in this place? One way to approach those questions is to reflect on your experience. What have you found that you want more of? What are you still hoping to find? When I asked those questions on our vestry retreat in January we ended up talking for hours. One of my basic assumptions about this congregation, about St. Aidan’s church, is that we are all here because of something we have found, and/or because of something we are still seeking. What those things are may sound different for each of us, but I promise there is enough similarity in the stories of what we celebrate and what we seek to bind us together as a community. That is the way it has worked since the earliest days of Christianity. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Something found.......something hoped for.
What have you found? What do you still hope to find?
Well, while you’re putting your shopping list together, let me take a minute to tell you what we offer here at St. Aidan’s. Actually it is what’s offered everywhere that people gather regularly to reflect on the big questions like life, and God, and the meaning of it all. What we have to offer is transformation. What happens to us here in the Church is we are made into new people. Sometimes overnight, more often very slowly, almost imperceptibly over time. This is a place where people come to be changed....where people are changed.
That’s what happens in this shop marked “people of God.”
Jeremiah talks today about being shaped by God the potter....in his image Israel is molded, shaped into what they could not become on their own. Jesus, in the gospel appointed for St. Aidan’s day says that all who choose to leave something behind in order to follow him will be given something better than what they walked away from. Both are speaking of transformation, of being formed.....made into something new. Jesus speaks about having even our desires and priorities rearranged, re-formed, made new.
Now if being made new doesn’t sound exactly like what you were looking for this morning, maybe a little out of your price range, don’t be discouraged. As I said before, transformation....being created...doesn’t have to happen all at once. We are talking “God’s time” here. But think about it. If you have found something here that draws you back, isn’t there a hope that that something will not only continue, but increase. If you have found a kind of peace in the worship don’t you hope that will deepen, at least a little? If you have found acceptance for your strange ideas about Christianity, or that bit of your story you were surprised to hear yourself telling in an adult class one morning---don’t you hope that that acceptance will spread even farther into the corners of your life? If you have found joy in serving others, if you have found it easier at times to shift your focus from yourself to others, wouldn’t you like to know a little bit about what lies further down that road? What have you found at St. Aidan’s that you would like more of? What do you still hope to find? Don’t those questions have something to do with how you would like your life to be shaped........formed?
This afternoon the youth of this parish will begin a new year of fun and fellowship and even some worship as EYC returns. Parents are meeting to hear about the offerings for children this Fall and about how they can support their kids experience in Sunday school. Adult ed. will begin next Sunday with a four week series on Art and the Spirit examining drama, music, art and writing. There are book groups on Monday and Tuesday mornings and a mothers’ group on Wednesday mornings. There is a parish camp out in a couple of weeks. We have evening programs planned once a month, and in Advent that will shift to once a week. Coming adult programs include stewardship, Bible study, a Spiritual journey workshop, a series on caring for ourselves and others at the end of life, and more. The labyrinth is open on Monday evenings at 6:30 followed by contemplative prayer at 7:30. There are a lot of ways to participate around here, beginning right now. If the lineup sounds a little overwhelming, let me suggest a strategy for approaching your Spiritual life at St. Aidan’s in the coming year.
Don’t start with that great Epistle you just received telling about everything that is coming. Don’t start with your calendar, which is already filling up. Begin by sitting down and asking yourself what it is you are looking for this year. What have you found? What are you still looking for? Or maybe more simply, how would you like to have God change your life in the coming year?
Ask yourself that question, and the transformation will have begun. Amen.
JB