1 Corinthians 1: 17-19, 25
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate....For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."
We’ve been talking about the subject of Covenant for the past several weeks now. It’s such a big subject that we will likely be talking about it for quite a while yet. We’ve been largely focusing on our history of covenant – both that of the Disciples at large and within our own congregation, but we’re going to switch directions for a while and do some imagining about ways we can move more deeply into covenant within our churches and with those outside.
Most of the material we have been using thus far, as I’ve explained in the past, has come from our national office, from a curriculum titled A Covenant Conversation, but staring today we’ll be using another curriculum titled, Imagine a World with More, (also from our national office.)
Here, we will be asking ourselves to stretch our imaginations and envision our church with more... more Compassion, more Justice, more of many things that perhaps we haven’t truly considered until now.
The dreaded ‘we’ve always done it this way’ has been the scourge of the church for generations – the reluctance to change anything that we are comfortable with – the things we think we know how to do and don’t require us to change. But over the past two years we have been forced into many changes. We’ve made changes and we’ve survived. But those were changes made of necessity.
But now we are being asked to use our imaginations and to go places we’ve not necessarily even considered in the past. We’re being called to see if we need to change some basic parts of how we do ministry, how we care for one another, maybe even how we define just who “we” are.
This series is based in the belief that God’s love has no limits – and neither does God’s imagination. Perhaps it’s time we start thinking in terms of God’s church having no limits, either. Many of us have operated too long in a mind-set of scarcity. One of my favorite sayings reads like this: “Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not pie.” That’s a mind-set that assumes that if anyone gets more of anything then I’m going to get less. But that’s not how God works.
If we truly believe that God’s love, God’s imagination is limitless, then we can never lose by someone else gaining something they haven’t had – love, grace, hope, support, life-affirmation, welcome. With God, all of these come in limitless supply. We don’t have to give up anything to make these available to others. The only thing we ever need to give up is our fear that we will prove to be insufficient if we reach too far.
In presenting her State of the Church message for 2022, Our General Minister President Terri Hord Owens shared a story she had always loved. The story was originally told by preacher-storyteller extraordinaire Fred Craddock. Fred told a story of being a kid in Humboldt, Tennessee, and how on summer evenings when the house was too hot they'd go outside and lie on the grass in the backyard.
And sometimes his dad would join them and pluck a stalk of grass and look up at the stars and chewing on the grass he'd get philosophical and he'd say, ‘How far can you think?’ Fred would say, ‘Well what do you mean?’ Dad said, ‘Well, think out there. Just think out there as far as you can.’ And then he'd wait a bit and say, ‘Are you thinking as far as you can think?’
Fred said, ‘Yeah, I think I'm thinking as far as I can think.’ ‘Well imagine you're driving a stake right there. That's as far as you can think. Put a stake there.’ And then Fred said he would do that in his mind and then dad would say, ‘What now? What's on the other side of your stake?’ ‘Well, there's more.’ Okay, then dad said, ‘move your stake.’ And in his mind he'd move the stake out even farther.” God's imagination is so limitless that we are called to continually move the stakes we place out a little further.
Let’s spend some time together in the next few weeks, discovering where we have planted our stakes in the past, and imagining just how far God might be calling us to move that stake...and where.
Most of the material we have been using thus far, as I’ve explained in the past, has come from our national office, from a curriculum titled A Covenant Conversation, but staring today we’ll be using another curriculum titled, Imagine a World with More, (also from our national office.)
Here, we will be asking ourselves to stretch our imaginations and envision our church with more... more Compassion, more Justice, more of many things that perhaps we haven’t truly considered until now.
The dreaded ‘we’ve always done it this way’ has been the scourge of the church for generations – the reluctance to change anything that we are comfortable with – the things we think we know how to do and don’t require us to change. But over the past two years we have been forced into many changes. We’ve made changes and we’ve survived. But those were changes made of necessity.
But now we are being asked to use our imaginations and to go places we’ve not necessarily even considered in the past. We’re being called to see if we need to change some basic parts of how we do ministry, how we care for one another, maybe even how we define just who “we” are.
This series is based in the belief that God’s love has no limits – and neither does God’s imagination. Perhaps it’s time we start thinking in terms of God’s church having no limits, either. Many of us have operated too long in a mind-set of scarcity. One of my favorite sayings reads like this: “Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not pie.” That’s a mind-set that assumes that if anyone gets more of anything then I’m going to get less. But that’s not how God works.
If we truly believe that God’s love, God’s imagination is limitless, then we can never lose by someone else gaining something they haven’t had – love, grace, hope, support, life-affirmation, welcome. With God, all of these come in limitless supply. We don’t have to give up anything to make these available to others. The only thing we ever need to give up is our fear that we will prove to be insufficient if we reach too far.
In presenting her State of the Church message for 2022, Our General Minister President Terri Hord Owens shared a story she had always loved. The story was originally told by preacher-storyteller extraordinaire Fred Craddock. Fred told a story of being a kid in Humboldt, Tennessee, and how on summer evenings when the house was too hot they'd go outside and lie on the grass in the backyard.
And sometimes his dad would join them and pluck a stalk of grass and look up at the stars and chewing on the grass he'd get philosophical and he'd say, ‘How far can you think?’ Fred would say, ‘Well what do you mean?’ Dad said, ‘Well, think out there. Just think out there as far as you can.’ And then he'd wait a bit and say, ‘Are you thinking as far as you can think?’
Fred said, ‘Yeah, I think I'm thinking as far as I can think.’ ‘Well imagine you're driving a stake right there. That's as far as you can think. Put a stake there.’ And then Fred said he would do that in his mind and then dad would say, ‘What now? What's on the other side of your stake?’ ‘Well, there's more.’ Okay, then dad said, ‘move your stake.’ And in his mind he'd move the stake out even farther.” God's imagination is so limitless that we are called to continually move the stakes we place out a little further.
Let’s spend some time together in the next few weeks, discovering where we have planted our stakes in the past, and imagining just how far God might be calling us to move that stake...and where.
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