September 9, 2012, "Intent or Something Greater"

Proverbs 22 Mark 7: 24-37 Throughout our 211 year heritage as the Church in this place, we have intentionally sought many different identities. The recipients of missionaries, the Religious Society, the First Presbyterian Church, the Chapel of Skaneateles, the two First Presbyterian Churches, the Christian Endeavor, the Harvest Home, the Early Childhood Center, the Masterworks Chorale, the Home for the Well Aged, the Sanctuary of fine Music, the America Cares for Sudan Foundation, and now both the House of Prayer and J.C.& Co. Each of which have reflected the needs and priorities of the world and our response... each describe a piece of who we are and what have been important to us as we seek to be the Church. Immediately after the Revolutionary War, with George Washington as our President and Napoleon waging War, Christian Missionaries from the great metropolises of New Hampshire came here finding settlers who had come to this place for rich land to work and a good place in which to live. These missionaries lived and spent time with each person and family, literally living in your home for 3 weeks to a month, listening, teaching to break bread and pray and read the Scriptures and sing to God. After several years of each of us being visited and ministered to as the recipients of mission in this place, individuals and families joined together to form what we hoped and intended to be a Religious Society. Recognize there were not yet any other means of gathering people together. There was no Grange, there were no stores or schools or banks or businesses. What would a “Religious Society” look like? What would it be, if we set out to intentionally work together to live spiritually, ethically, morally, faithfully according to the Scriptures? Our ancestors, forming the Skaneateles Religious Society created the first Courts and Schools and Place & Time for the offering of prayers, the confession of sins in order to offer the Sacraments to all wishing to receive. The purpose of the Church in this place was to serve the needs of others, that rich and poor, women and men, might all have access to learning, and to justice, and to God. Interesting, that the purpose of creating the courts was not as means of determining right/wrong/responsibility or extracting punishment or compensation for pain & suffering, but in order that the society have a vehicle for forgiveness and the restoration of balance for all to share communion with one another and with God. Yet, in practicality, this community has continually been titillated by scandal, and struggled after extracting discipline even excommunicating to redeem. There were times in which the First Presbyterian Church attempted to create an identity as The Church, and times in which we sought to distance ourselves from Institutionalism and all that goes with being part of “Organized Religion.” Times in which because of differences within the community, the church tried to serve each separately, meeting every person's individual needs, and times when we came to recognize the greater harm we had done to Christ by our separation and divisions. In 1881 The Christian Endeavor Society began as the original Youth Ministry and within 5 years had grown to over 4 Million members across this Nation. To be part of Christian Endeavor was to recite the Pledge: Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would like me do; that I will make it the rule of my life to pray and to read the Bible every day, and to support the work and worship of my own church in every way possible; and that just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life. As an active member I promise to be true to my duties, to be present and to take some part, aside from singing, in every Christian Endeavor meeting, unless hindered by some reason which I can conscientiously give to my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. If obliged to be absent from the monthly consecration meeting of the society, I will, if possible, send at least a verse of Scripture to be read in response to my name at the roll call. Which in turn gave rise in this Church to creation of many activities and corporations. Realize what this has done, for in many ways we have “a tail that wags our dog,” while we as a Church have an Operating Budget of about $330,000 and Budget 15% of that for Mission, we have created and enabled opportunities for giving roughly $3 million for these programs, supported by the church and outside our control. In many ways, adopting the name J.C.& Company owns the corporate nature of our being the church in the world today. That is our heritage, and part of our baggage as The Church in this place and time. However, one of the great blindnesses we humans possess is we arrogantly believe our intentions will create a better world. By virtue of Law and Reason, Philosophy, Technology and Scientific control we think that our Pledges, our Intentions, our choosing of a Good Name will determine our outcomes, as if despite all our excuses we could control reality. This theory is predicated on the understanding that we are Sensory beings, who through sight and hearing, smell, taste and touch can know our world. From Isaac Newton and Descartes we created a sense of reality as being sensory, knowable, obeying Laws of Nature. The problem is not that we did not yet pick the right name, or that our thinking was flawed. The problem is that our senses can only identify reality descriptively giving a name to things, and not prescriptively. Creation, and we as Human Creatures in that Creation is all part of something far larger, beyond our ability to control, beyond our ability to know, even more basic that our senses, a different reality. There is Good and Evil in the world. There is good and evil in our midst. Our understanding of reality based on Law as we know it, based on our Sensory perceptions of the world, cannot explain other dimensions to life, cannot explain the depth of being. There is a Human Will. There are Circumstances we describe as Fate. As named by PROVERBS, the balance of life is that there are Rich and Poor. The point is not what a blessing it is to be rich, or a curse to be poor, not even what blessings there are in being poor and what burdens and curses in riches! But that we cannot be foolish; for when we are foolish,every blessing we have experienced will be taken away. Our intentions do not control the world. We can choose to succeed, we can shape our world, but ultimately all our lives are in the Hand of God. After spending 18 hours in Prayer and Fasting in the Sanctuary this weekend, my bride asked “So what new insights did this give you?” First, I was surprised and delighted to not be alone, that through out the night 10 others, many from our Session, some from our congregation, some whom I do not know joined in this, saying “Thank you for the opportunity to take time to pray.” At times throughout, my mind had wondered so are you simply setting aside this time, being in this place, existing, does that make this Sabbath or how shall we pray, is this reflection, or being open to some other understanding? Second, that we need to reflect and tell our story over and over, both because as human beings we often do not hear things the first time, we cannot keep track of all the things in our own lives let alone the Church; and because in reflection we see what was not apparent in the present moment. Third, that as the church in this time and place, we have accomplished great things, we are richly blessed. In the moment, we can and have felt attacked, defeated even defensive, alone and hopeless, but we have been richly blessed, with fellowship, and a well maintained facility created for our current needs, a lack of debt, incredible instruments for making music, missions in this place and around the world that have changed peoples' lives, resources for the future of the church in this place. However, more than the accomplishments, recognizing good and evil in the world, we have witnessed Miracles, we have witnessed Redemption, and we have known the Evil among us which divides and breaks us. Among us are those, who more than a decade ago we expected to be dead, who more than survival have come through to new life! We have known marriages with infidelities and affairs, as well as those afflicted with serious mental illness who had no hope for the future, who have found one another and fallen in love and covenant commitment far different than ever before. While we are a Youth Obsessed culture, among us, cared for by us are those approaching and surpassing a hundred years of life! Among us are those who were diagnosed with Cancers and Chronic Illnesses they did not want to have or to acknowledge, or even treat, but who because of this illness found other events that could have destroyed them, and some of these among us have found that life is a chronic condition that can be lived with. Fourth, that at 2 in the morning on a Friday Night, there are a great many people out on the street with nothing to do! And, even when we have created the opportunity for strangers to join us, when the door opens at 2am, it is difficult to greet strangers as welcome guests. AND Fifth, as described in the Gospel this morning, that our faith, our fidelity to our needs can change God's mind, can reveal something new in God's plan that had not been intended for that moment in time. Last Sunday the sermon named the power of Love to change our hearts and circumstance, but the power of Love also changes God and reveals the covenant commitment and compassion of God in ways the world had never known. As THE COMPANY, the Christian Endeavor, the Religious Society, as those who received missionaries in our homes and who now act in mission, as the great Cloud of Witnesses, the Church in this Time and Place, we act intentionally. We choose a Good name for what we intend to do. AND we also recognize there is Good and there is Evil among us, for God is God and we are in God's hand.