A Sermon for Proper 5, Year C

 

Let us pray.

 

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. [1]

 

Like almost all such prayers in the Prayer Book, today’s Collect begins by saying something about God, and goes from there.  O God, from whom all good proceeds…  Now, in itself, that is quite a statement --  that all that is good in life, in the world, in the cosmos, proceeds from God.  This notion comes, of course, from the first chapter of Genesis, in which we’re told that God looks on all that God has made and finds it good.  

 

No doubt, a sermon or two could be preached on just these opening words of the prayer --  but following the model of the Collect itself, I’m going to note them, and move on.  God is the One from whom all good proceeds --  what then should we pray for?  We could go in lots of directions, but this prayer focuses first on what goes on in our minds:  O God, from whom all good proceeds, grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right…  

 

Notice that the prayer asks that we may think those things that are right by God’s inspiration.  Since all God proceeds from God, then God’s inspiration is needed if we are think what is right.  The Holy Spirit must be at work in our minds if what comes out of them is to be good.  We can’t do it on our own.  But notice – God, apparently, doesn’t want to be a Lone Ranger, either.  If this prayer is onto something true about us and God, it means that God wants to work in and through our minds, inspiring us to think those things that are right.  We can’t think what is right on our own, but God also needs to be engaged with our minds.  It seems that we and God are in this business on thinking those things that are right together. 

 

But in talking about thinking those things that are right, we have to be careful about what that means.  So often in our ideologically driven political culture, thinking those things that are right means having the “proper” opinion, holding the “correct” ideas, having the most “orthodox” theology.  Such a context can mislead us into thinking that in this prayer we are asking God to help us have only the most “theologically correct” thoughts in our minds.  

 

Moreover, it can mislead us into believing that God is primarily concerned with our abstract thoughts.  The continuation of the Collect makes clear how far this is from the truth:

Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them.  The “right things” that we seek to think turn out to be not abstract ideas, but things to do.  

 

This is perfectly in line with our whole Judeo-Christian tradition.  The Bible is abundantly clear that God is much more interested in what we do than in the abstract thoughts that we might have –even our thoughts about God.  Biblical religion is lived religion, not theoretical religion.  The central core of  Biblical life – faith – is not a set of ides about God:  it is lived trust in God --  concrete trust of the sort we heard of in our Old Testament story about Elijah and the widow, who trusted this man of God’s word that she and her son would be fed in the midst of famine as long as they fed him, too, and who trusted that God, working through Elijah, could do something about her son’s tragic death. [2]  Faith, trust and thinking those things that are right are a way of living, a set of actions, a pattern of doing.

 

And just as good thinking requires God and us working together, so, too, the Collect reminds us that does good doing.  Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them.  We need God’s merciful guiding to do the good and right that God wants done in the world.  As with right thinking, we can’t do it on our own.  But, for good to be done in the world, God also needs us.  

 

As St. Theresa of Avila wrote:

 

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.  [3]  

 

We and God are in this thinking and doing good business together.  We need each other to think and do the good that needs to be done.  We are co-creative partners – God inspiring our thinking; God guiding our doing.  This morning’s prayer teaches how it is that good gets thought and gets done in God’s world.

 

I’ve gone into this matter of thinking and doing together with God this morning for a particular reason --  it is a fabulous description of the process we are in the midst of here at St. Francis, working together with each other and with God to think and do the mission and ministry God is calling us to in the years to come.  

 

We began this co-creative work last fall when, in our Growing Together Stewardship Conversations, we shared with each other ways we’d experienced God’s love and presence in the life of St. Francis’ and our hopes and dreams for the future.  This work continued when the Vestry went on retreat last month at the Convent of St. John the Baptist. In that time, we looked at challenges in the past, identified the strengths that had helped St. Francis get through them and claimed the confidence for the future that those experiences had given us.  We named assets and values of the parish, explored how we experience God’s presence in our common life, looked at our ministry context and heard God’s call to let the “whole world see and know” [4] God’s work in and through us.

 

Then, in the context of prayer and trust in the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, we began to develop a set of goals to guide our ministry in the coming years.  I hope you’ve read over those goals in the Communiqué.  If you haven’t yet, they are on the walls around you, color-coded:  Over here, in blue, are possible goals for the coming year.  On that wall, in orange, possible goals for the next one to three years.  And on the back wall, in purple, possible goals for three to five years from now.  (The goals follow this sermon)

 

If you’ve read them over, you’ve probably figured out that many of the goals are interconnected.  For instance, if, in 3-5 years we are to start a community outreach projects, we’ll need to do a needs assessment of the community in the next one to three years.  Or if we are going to have a full-time priest and move from mission to parish status, we’ll need to develop a spirit and practice of generous giving in the congregation, be more intentional about inviting people to check out who we are and what we do, and build a process to welcome, track and incorporate newcomers into parish life. To do any of this and stay focused on God, we’ll need to have ongoing opportunities to deepen our spiritual lives and fellowship with one another.  And so on…  

 

Now, so far, most of our work towards this future ministry has been focused on thinking, hopefully with God’s inspiration – and we’re not quite done with that part.  Next Sunday, and the 2 weeks following, we all will have a chance to join in this work together.  Using the newsprint on the walls, you’ll each get a chance to indicate which of these goals you think God is calling St. Francis to work towards – and that’s important.  There is more here than we’ll be able to tackle at once, and we will need to make some choices.  Your thinking with God’s inspiration will help parish leadership determine which are the right things for us to work towards in the next few years.  

 

But next week, we won’t focus just on thinking – we’ll attend to doing, too.  You will be asked to indicate those goals that you yourself have a passion for and a desire to be part of the doing.  For just as thinking about ministry needs to be done by us all, so, too, does the doing of ministry.  And always, always, in partnership with God.

 

So to prepare for next week, I’m going to ask each of us do some thinking and some doing.  Here’s the thinking:  read over these goals, here in Church, in your Communiqué or on the website and start to think about which you believe God is calling us to and which you’d want to be part of doing.

 

Here’s the doing: Pray.  Take home your bulletin and each day this week, with St. Francis in mind, pray the Collect with which we began; this prayer that reminds us that all good comes from God and that asks God’s help in our thinking and doing.  And to get us started, let us pray that prayer together now:

 

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

The Rev. Jack Zamboni

June 6, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

YOUTH GROUP

One Year Goal

Form an active Youth Group at St. Francis

(Nancy Dunham & Paul Sinckler will co-lead, starting Fall, 2010.)

 

NEWCOMERS MINISTRY

One Year Goal

Build a process to welcome, track &

 incorporate newcomers into parish life.

(Deacon Marge is forming a team to work on this task.)

 

IDENTIFY TALENTS

One Year Goal 

Identify talents parishioners have

to offer for the ministry of St. Francis.

 

SPIRITUAL GROWTH

One Year Goal

Offer ongoing opportunities for Bible Study,

sharing our faith stories & deeper fellowship.

 

TRANSPORTATION

One Year Goal

Offer transportation to parishioners

who need rides to/from church (and beyond)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PARKING LOT

One to Three Year Goal

Pave and expand the parking lot to

provide for growth & ease of parking.

 

INTENTIONAL INVITATION

One to Three Year Goal

Develop multiple ways to invite the community

 to events and worship at St. Francis.

 

GIFTING & TITHING

One to Three Year Goal

Develop a spirit and practice of

 generous giving in the congregation.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

One to Three Year Goal

Hire a paid administrative assistant.

 

LUTHERAN LINKS

One to Three Year Goal

Create links w/the Lutheran Church,

such as shared Vacation Bible School.

 

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

One to Three Year Goal

Assess community needs to which St. Francis

 could respond with outreach projects.

 

 

 

 

 

COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROJECTS

Three to Five Year Goal

Develop community outreach project(s) based at St. Francis.

 

NON-ENGLISH WORSHIP &MINISTRY

Three to Five Year Goal

Offer worship & ministry with people whose 1st language is not English.

 

THREE SERVICES

Three to Five Year Goal

Offer three services each Sunday/weekend.

 

FULL-TIME PRIEST

Three to Five Year Goal

Have a full-time priest

(Fr. Jack currently serves 2/3 time).

 

MISSION PARISH

Three to Five Year Goal

Be recognized as an Independent Parish of the Diocese

(St. Francis is currently a Mission congregation)