Catalytic Mechanisms Oct 7, 2008

A few years ago, many of us read Jim Collins book Good to Great, which describes establishing BHAGs, BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS. We set out to establish our own Big Hairy Audacious Goal, TO BE THE CHURCH, not just a Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles, but AS THE CHURCH TO EMBODY TRUST, FAITH and COMMITMENT. The Church is not a denomination, not a building, programs, staff, music or education, all these are elements like fingernails of the WHOLE BODY, but we will be a RESOURCE OF THE COMMUNITY, standing with the powerless, offering a place for those with Cancer, and for Children, and to Gather Food, and to make a home for Refugees, to assist our elders to change from independent lives to living in a community of caring. As Robert Hudnut described 35 years ago, the CHURCH IS A SLEEPING GIANT, and we would finally wake up.

This week, while on vacation, I was lying on the beach reading old articles from Harvard Business Review, I have told you before that for Minister's the BUSINESS REVIEW is like reading a trashy Danielle Steele novel. And here was a juicy fresh idea from Jim Collins, who said ANY LEADER CAN CREATE A BHAG, but to make the dream a reality, to fulfill your goal, you need to implement methods to change. Change is not a little thing, but a radical departure, creating mechanisms that if followed will result in Creating the BHAG.

Two weeks ago, we read in the 16th Chapter of Luke, the Parable of the DISHONEST STEWARD who was caught unfairly charging debtors, they were dissatisfied, so the steward invited them to short pay their bills, paying only the principal of their debts. Collins described that there is a company out in Colorado called Granite Inc. whose Big Hairy Audacious Goal was to provide the same level of CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AS NEIMAN MARCUS LUXURY STORE, but this from men working in a Quarry. What they did was to copy a few sentences on the bottom of every bill and their letterhead, stating that “Our Goal is Your Satisfaction. If there is some part of your bill you are not satisfied with, cross it out and pay the balance.” This is not a refund, or invtation to argue disputes, but a clear CATALYTIC MECHANISM to ENSURE SATISFACTION. Pay for what is right. Naming what is wrong, we will then know to change it. Imagine, after a meal, or after a plane trip, deducting what really was wrong, this would force the business to make corrections. The point is not to Haggle, or to try to get away with something for nothing, but that everyone should be able to be satisfied.

A Teacher in their classroom realized that whenever a question was asked the same three or four hands would shoot up. Recognizing that often times a very insightful idea goes unshared and that the goal of education in a classroom is the sharing of ideas, they created a new Catalytic Method. In the classroom were redflags, and if you had something important to say you were to wave the red flag, and all discussion would stop, as you claimed the mechanism to share your idea. Over time, the teacher added that each student could only use the red flag once per semester, could not give or sell their flag to someone else. What if, on a given Sunday morning you have a great joy, or deep confession, a burning question or concern, should we not, could we not listen?

Over the last several weeks, this Autumn, we have been reading the Gospel according to Luke, and have described that while you can pull out and memorize individual stories or teachings, THE 15th CHAPTER that describes FINDING THE LOST becomes the lens through which everything else in Luke is understood. When one lamb is lost, God seeks out that one until finding it to bring home; when one coin is lost, God lights the whole house and searches without relenting until the lost is found; when a parent has children who struggle for their independence, they can become lost, and God goes out and waits to bring them home. As IMPORTANT as the GIFT of the SAVIOR at CHRISTMAS, as REDEMPTIVE as the Crucifixion and Resurrection at EASTER, FINDING, FORGIVING, RESTORING THE LOST AS FOUND is at the heart of LUKE's Gospel.

The CRUX of this morning's reading from the 17th Chapter is that a THING IS WHAT IT IS! Forgiveness is Forgiveness, Sin is sin, Duty is Duty, and Faith is faith.
Regardless of whether we Lie to one another OR we Steal from one another, or we have an Affair in violation of our vows to one another, whether we hate and murder in our hearts or with our hands, a SIN IS A SIN. It matters not whether you cut a little, or cut to the core. When we sin, we have done serious harm to another and to ourselves and to God. There are no LITTLE SINS versus BIG ONES, a betrayal is a betrayal, a violation is a violation. And TOO FORGIVENESS is FORGIVENESS.

We have become too familiar with forgiveness, we have so watered down and made common our relationships, that Forgiveness has come to mean DISMISSAL AS IRRELEVANT. “It is okay, I didn't really care.” NO. Forgiveness costs! Forgiveness is total and absolute. We change relationship, the LOST is no longer LOST, but now is FOUND. IF all we have done is to dismiss the broken, we have not truly forgiven, we set it aside to pile up, we added to the insult of the sin our acceptance, but to truly forgive means that we change relationship, naming the wound and dealing with it openly.

Faith whether the size of a mustard seed, or a mountain, whether the faith of a child, or the faith of a 94 year old, IS FAITH IN THE POWER OF GOD. Too often we believe in RITUAL, in Rote Practices, in our own control, going through the motions of life together, of believing in God. Those disciplines and routines are important as helping us name our dreams, drawing castles in the sky, but as Thoreau names at the end of Walden, “If you have built castles in the sky, that is where they belong, the challenge is how we can create foundations for them here on earth.” Faith is the painful struggle named in LAMENTATIONS. There are very real seasons of our life, that seem too much, and we ask, we demand “WHY GOD?” and the realizations of God's presence, God's healing only come later. Lamentations is hard for us to read and understand. In part because we are not sure who is talking. Possibly it is a PROPHET, a BELIEVER, struggling with, lamenting life. But my reading of this is that this is the LAMENT OF GOD.
The Hebrew Scriptures never try to convince us whether there is or is not a God, BUT RATHER describe this very Fleshy God who Hopes and Loves and gets Angry, and Forgives. These laments are leter quoted by Jesus, butb they were present there hundreds of years prior, as GOD IS THE ONE, the defender of the Powerless, the orphaned, the weak, who has seen and experienced the pains of this life on humanity, who is wounded by these and yet still clings to hope.

It is difficult for us, but we can reconcile each of these, A SIN is a Sin; Forgiveness that changes us is real and total forgiveness; Faith is not simply ritual and dogma, but Faith that GOD CAN BE GOD and all we can ever be is believers, can make the impossible possible.
But the PARABLE OF A SERVANT'S DUTY is hard for us. We have each been trained to believe in skills and abilities, that the harder you work and the greater your investment, the greater your reward. BUT the reality is that LIFE IS FULL, we owe one another and God our care and service of one another. We were formed to be servants caring for creation, caring for one another, being companions to one another. We can CHEAT OURSELVES and ONE ANOTHER of That. But in the end, we are Mortal, we are Creaturely, our duty is to serve.

That is the Big Hairy Audacious Goal of Life, that we would serve one another and serve God.
The Catalytic Mechanism God has given us to bring this BHAG about, is that we share in serving Communion. What we have done is not simply bread and juice, or a sacred ritual of the Church, but Communion is an opening and outpouring of ourselves to share with one another, praying for real forgiveness. There are times we feel unworthy, unable, but with faith all things are possible.