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Sermon preached at All Saints', Wolfeboro, by The Rev. Edward G. Rice; January 6, 2013, Epiphany, Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12;
Matthew 2:1-12
I had a friend in one of the parishes I served, Bob Scott, was his name, a very religious man, was fond of saying, "There are no coincidences! But some instances are more meaningful than others."
I find this morning one of those incidences. Many of us have just spent that last several hours trying to look into the opaqueness that is the future and discern what God, church leadership and our culture might have in store for us.
And now we gather to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.
Anybody know what the word means? An appearance or manifestation, especially of the divine; a revealing scene or moment. I remember a former Assistant, Isobel Blythe, from that same parish, saying that the root of the word is the same root from which we got the word, cellophane. Trying to discern the future is like looking through a piece of wood and trying to imagine what might be there.
So, beyond the word, that is what the story we read in this morning's Gospel is all about.
Looking beyond the words, the wood of that story, you see a church and a writer trying to discern what is in store for their church in rapidly changing times. The imagination is very much at work here as the author tells a tale of soothsayers, astrologers, trying to figure what is going on in the world and turning to the stars, historians, intuitives, dream readers, and the like, to figure what is going on. Looking into the future takes a wild imagination and the willingness to take risks!
Another coincident, quote unquote if you will, occurred this week. On Monday I received my copy of Congregations magazine, a publication of the Alban Institute, which contained an article entitled, Rethinking Interim Ministry. In that article the author wonderfully articulates what Hank Junkin, Tom Wilson, your search committee and a number of us who have been working in this field have begun to conclude. That the traditional understanding of interim ministry, the ministry of making the transition from one settled pastor to the next has changed. The new understanding is that what is most critical is helping a congregation realize that the culture in which ministry is done is changing rapidly and radically and that understanding that cultural change is critical to moving effectively into new ministry with a new leader in ministry.
So let me try to pull all these coincidences together with a story.
In 1975 a second child was born into our family. Up and until that point, my first wife and I had camped in Maine for our one month of summer vacation. But, as my wife put it, when it rains, you can still go fishing. But from now on, when it rains, I will be stuck in a tent with two young children and that is not going to happen!
Fortunately, by God's Grace, I got invited to be the chaplain at a summer chapel on an island off the Coast of Maine that summer. The good news was we had a place to stay and it was a five bedroom home with a boat on an island off the Coast of Maine. The bad news was that it was on an island of the Coast of Maine, we had two children with a regular need for fresh milk and diapers and, from time to time, it gets foggy for days and you still need fresh milk and diapers.
After one three day stretch, we were out of milk and diapers and it became my responsibility to remedy the situation. Not knowing what else to do, and somewhat afraid of the fog, quite appropriately, I might add, I asked one of the young teenagers who had spent all her summers on the island to guide me through the fog to the mainland.
When we got into our boat, she advised me to stay close to the shore. I thought she meant thirty feet when she had meant ten feet from the shore-the fog was pretty thick.
At one point, she turned to me and said, "We're lost!"
"Lost!" I said. "We are just off the shore."
"I don't think so," she said. "Look behind you. The wake tells me we have just gone in a circle."
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"I have no idea." she said.
So we sat and waited, and got very frightened, for a very long time! Then suddenly, the sun shone through the clouds. At that time in the afternoon, I figured the sun must be in the west, the direction we were supposed to be going and I decided to follow it. It lead us right into the harbor, to safety, to where we could find milk and diapers. I hugged the shore much more closely on our return. I went back, as it were, by a different way!
So what did I learn from that incident? What did the church and Matthew's community learn going through the rapid cultural change in which they found themselves?
#1. This story is about God, Jesus, the light. Following anything else, anyone else, clinging to anything else can get you mighty lost and in deep, deep, trouble! Or as I tell children as part of teaching sermons, in Church the answer to every question is Jesus.
#2. You need to pay careful attention to your environment. Navigating in the fog is different than cruising on a clear day. Central to this search process is realizing that the environment, and therefore congregations, need to be open to new ways.
#3. That when you are going through new, different, foggy situations, you are likely to find yourself in the boat with new and different folks and you need to listen to them. If they are part of that new and different world you are moving into, you need to listen to them carefully.
#4. Even in new and different circumstances, you need to remember and hold onto core values and traditions. Core values and traditions might be quite different than familiar ways. In the story Matthew told, the core values and traditions are listening to and being open to God, knowing Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, following the light, working at discernment, being willing to take risks, being generous in sharing gifts, sharing the Good News with all the world, not just your own. I never went out again without a map and a compass!
#5. Remember that when you get lost in the fog, get surrounded by alligators in the swamp-to switch the metaphor, that the problem is not the fog, the enemy is not the alligators, that fog is what you find off the Coast of Maine, the swamp is full of alligators. The problem, the object of the journey, if you will, is finding milk and diapers, nurture, safety, protections, community. Keep your eye on the prize and don't let the fog, the alligators, distract you.
#6. In times of change, as it says in the Gospel lesson, wise people know they will most-likely have to go back, or forward, by a different way!
In the Name of Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
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