You have to be Here

I love language. I love playing with it, I love using it in conversation. I’m always trying to learn new words or phrases that will further my communication. Because that is the line of work we all should be in…communication. Conveying to others what it is we are trying to say as best we can.

And Howard Thurman said this. He was one of the major inspirations of Dr. Martin Luther King’s work. Because bad communication leads to misunderstanding, which leads to frustration, which leads further and further away from relationship. I think in the immediate wake of the shootings in Arizona, we have seen a first-hand account of how bad communication only exacerbates the problem…and we have also seen instances of how good communication can heal.
Dr. King who we recognize and honor today showed how communication can heal. He offered a dream, that was given to him by God, and he helped organize and end oppression. Healing deep-seated wounds left by slavery and segregation with words, and action. He communicated the love of God to all people, and non-violently faced violent oppression.

Good communication, especially in important matters, is so vital.

Have you ever been having a conversation and sort of threw up your hands exasperated and said…but that’s not what I meant?

That happens to me a lot. The problem is that those words are already out there, and you can’t take them back. My grandmother used to always say, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.”

One of the more famous of a communication difficulty came from President John F. Kennedy. When he went to the Berlin Wall and announced proudly, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner.” Which roughly translated means, “I am a jelly doughnut.”

But that is a rough translation. It turns out, he didn’t make a mistake at all in this speech! That everyone there, when they heard him say this often misinterpreted phrase, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner,” heard, “I am a person from Berlin.” Stating his solidarity with a city and country that was struggling after World War II. It would be equivalent to someone saying they were a New Yorker, and people interpreting that they were the magazine. Someone would never do that! So what people have claimed was a stupid mistake, wasn’t really a mistake at all. All because of multiple layers of miscommunication.

Good communication is so important, and it is so vital, that is a wonder that we aren’t better at it.

But sometimes, language falls short. There are things that I can’t put into words. And it is at these points where I say, “You had to be there.”

I can’t put into words what it felt like when Georgia was born. I can’t put into words culmination of joy, and fear, and happiness, and love…I can’t do it. You had to be there.

I think it is that way for a lot of things that are important. You have to be there. Words can’t really describe it. The only way to communicate it, is to experience it.

So one day, while John was walking along with two of his disciples, he saw Jesus. And he tried to put it into words for them. He said, here is the lamb of God!

They have already heard John say what happened at Jesus’s Baptism where the Spirit of the Lord descended on him, and he heard a voice from heaven. They have heard John say that Jesus is greater than he is. But now, what John is saying is surprising.
A Lamb…not a King? This carpenter out of Nazareth is whom we are hoping for? Is that the best God can do? Or as Philip says in just a few verses later, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Showing our predisposition for presumption and prejudice, even when we are talking about Jesus, and even in churches.

The disciples wanted someone who they could rally behind. One who made the current power structure nervous. One who could protect them. One who could save them. Jesus was just so…ordinary, or so it seemed.

But maybe John was onto something, so they began to follow Jesus, and he asked them a very probing question, “What are you looking for?”

I ask you that same question this morning. What are you looking for? Are you looking for power? Are you looking for prestige? Are you looking for an argument? Are you looking for healing? Are you looking for the power to forget? Are we looking for the power of memory?

What are you looking for?

What are all of us looking for when we come to church? Are we looking to see who is here and who is not? Are we looking for validation, or are we looking to feel good about ourselves?

Or are we looking for Jesus, and are we willing to accept Jesus how he comes to us rather than what we think he should be?
The disciples ask Jesus where he is staying and he says, Come and See.

Another brilliant thing to say in communication…Come and See. And in turn, Andrew goes out and excitedly tells Simon what is going on. But instead of brushing off his communication by saying, You just had to be there to understand. He turns it into an invitation; into excitement with, You have to be here!

That is a turn we all need to make with our invitation to follow Christ.

The first question is, What are you looking for?

We are all looking for different things, but what we believe as Christians is that what we are all truly looking for is Christ. We are looking for Jesus who is our Savior and our Friend. Who calls us to be his disciples. To live lives worthy of that calling. That is what all of us are looking for.

Then, we help show people what they are looking for is here. At Bold Spring. You have to be here.

And that is what I am saying to you this morning. You have to be here. I am excited about what is happening at this church. People are meeting Jesus for the first time, and people are meeting Jesus all over again.

The children are meeting Jesus. This past week families got together to sled and fellowship, that is meeting Jesus because it is being a community together enjoying God’s gifts of health and creation. Jesus’ Lap, if you have never been, is FUN! We eat together, we hear stories, we play. It is so much fun, you have to be here. You have to be here when we meet Jesus.

The youth are meeting Jesus. Asking good questions, being good friends, and giving back to our community by packing food and raising money. You have to be here for when we meet. Because we are meeting Jesus.

You have to be here for our meetings. I know that sounds funny, but good decisions are being made. We are exploring new avenues of ministry. We are building a building. We voted last week, and it is happening. You have to be here, because we are meeting Jesus.

You have to be here for choir. We get to fellowship and sing because sometimes just saying words does not express the joy in our hearts. You have to be here for choir practice, because we are meeting Jesus.

The other day, on one of the snow days, I wanted to make some pancakes. I don’t know why the craving hit me, but it just did. I think I mainly wanted the syrup and needed something to get the syrup from the plate to my mouth. I got some mix from the store, and on the front of the box it said, just add water! And they were right, I just had to add the water, and my pancake batter was ready to go. Instant pancakes!

There are a lot of instant things in our world that make us think it is an instant world. Instant Messaging, instant coffee, instant grits. If we could just find that magic thing, everything would change in an instant.

With the Christian life, it is rarely instantaneous. Yes, Jesus can change your life in an instant, but it is a lifetime of following. There is no magic water that is going to make everything nice and perfect.

In our instant world we think it applies to instant church. You hear “All we need to do is…” We cannot just add water, and everything is ready. There is no “all we need to do.” Because meeting and following Christ is not instant, it’s for eternity. Eternal life.

We do not become instant parents, it is a lifetime. We do not become instant human beings, and we do not become instant Christians. Because it is not easy, and it is a lifetime of following.

But you have to be here. Words cannot describe the richness and the fullness of life that Christ offers. The joy you get when you give of yourself to your brothers and sisters in the world. The love you feel for your family and friends, and even complete strangers! The blessings that you once took for granted are shown all around you. You have to be here. Come and See.

It is my hope that in our following of Jesus we want others to join us in this journey. I know there are people in this community that are not in this church. I’m excited about being here so I am constantly saying, “you have to be here!” come and see what is going on at Bold Spring. Come and see our children and our youth. Come and see our study of Scripture and our community and how much we care for one another. Come and see the new project we are about to undertake and what it will mean for this community. Come and meet Jesus.

It is my hope that you say this to your neighbors too. Not because of numbers, which seems to be the thing that so many churches are interested in, but because of love of God, and love of neighbor.

Come and see what God can do.

Following a Star

Earlier this week, I went to Boston. It was cold. Really cold. It really wasn’t the best timing. The busyness of the Christmas season, followed by the Sunday that it snowed, followed by the changing of the year and thus the changing of the church leadership, followed by the meeting that is coming up tonight, along with everything else going on which you heard in our prayer requests, plus Meredith going back to work, and my having to attend a day long meeting for the North Georgia conference, it was not good timing. I realized that while I was getting ready to leave, and I am feeling it now. And did I mention that it was cold? And I knew it would be difficult, but I didn’t know it would be this difficult to get away like that.

So I had basically two days to see Boston. I went with my best friends, we try to get together every year, and this year we decided to make a trip of it. One of those friends is a computer scientist. He is really into technology and those kind of things.

The first full day that we were there, we went to walk the freedom trail. Which, if you have never heard of, which I hadn’t before we got there, is this path that is laid out throughout the city to take you by all of the historical places in Boston. It starts at the Massachusetts state house, and the Robert Shaw memorial. This is a statue to honor the fighting 54th. The first all black regiment that fought in the Civil War. And then, there is this path made of red brick that takes you all throughout the city, as you walk through and see all of the things that patriots did for our country that makes it so wonderful. We walked by Temple Baptist church, the first integrated church in America. We walked by a plaque that showed the first public school, making education free and available. We walked by Christ church, where Paul Revere hung lanterns in his famous ride, we saw the South meeting house, and the balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read to the people, we saw the USS Constitution, and we finally ended up at Bunker Hill. For a student of history, it was wonderful to see.

But my computer scientist friend spent the entire time looking at his phone. He downloaded a Freedom Trail App to his phone, which gave information about all the sites, but he spent the entire time looking at this tiny device, and forgot to actually look at all the things it was describing. We pointed it out to him, and were laughing at him the entire time, but he still did it, even though we pointed out to him.

And this is kind of a new phenomenon. So much so that I have seen advertisements for new mobile phones that will save us from our phones. That honestly is an advertising campaign, showing people missing their son’s baseball game, missing their daughter’s piano recital, and missing other things because they are staring at these tiny handheld devices. They are missing what is going on around them.

In fact, I found myself doing this in my life. With so many things available to me at my fingertips, I would spend time on the phone, or on the computer, or watching TV at my convenience because it recorded that I would miss what was happening right in front of me. So, that became my new years resolution, stop staring at my phone. And as a result, Boston, and really since I’ve been noticing things more everything else, has come alive.

The situation into which the wise men stepped was similar. Jesus Christ was born. It was pointed out in scripture time and time again. That it would happen. Mary knew, Joseph knew. The Shepherds knew. But the current Jewish authorities, Herod’s advisers, missed it. They were distracted, and forgot to look up. They forgot to look up to see the star.

So it took foreigners traveling many dangerous miles breaking into their bubble to point it out to them. To help us wake up and pay attention.

I think we often forget to look up. Life gets so busy. With the jobs we do. With the children we shuttle. With homework and housework. We forget to look up.

That is what our worship needs to be. There is a reason we come here each week. And its not just because that is what we are supposed to do. But it is to reorient our lives by the life of Jesus Christ. To look up, and notice that what is happening around us. To see what life is. To experience life and community with one another. This is one reason why I am not completely sold on “online church” that is happening, it just plunges us further into our distraction.

It sometimes takes someone who is outside our bubble to help us look up. Or an idea or experience that is beyond our comfort zones to help us see.

Something that has happened to me since I have moved here has been that I have gained a new appreciation of chicken. I don’t eat chicken more or less than I used to, it’s just that now I eat it differently—perhaps even more reverently. I have seen its production, and now eat it with a greater appreciation of the work that is behind it. Whereas before, I ate it without thinking about its production at all. But now that I know the faces behind it, the experience is richer.

It is an experience beyond myself that has awoken me to the truth in the world. That food doesn’t come from thin air, but has to be grown.

Mission trips have awoken me to the fact that poverty still exists in our own backyard, as well as around the world. Being in hospital rooms has awoken me to our own fragility, as well as the power of presence, and the power of prayer. Being with the youth has awoken me to pressures and experiences they face they I forgot about, or wouldn’t even dream about.

The wise men walking into our lives once again this morning awaken us to the greatness that comes with Jesus Christ coming into our lives. But they come, and need our help. They come, and say, we have heard about this baby being born…where is he. You see, they have the power of the information, but they need direction on how to experience it.

They know about this child in their head, and now they want to experience it.

There are still seekers like this in our community today. People who have heard that God has done something amazing but have yet to see it for there own eyes. And these seekers are led to this church as they follow many different stars. Some seekers come to this church because they were invited by a friend, or others come here to vote. No matter what star they are following, something has brought them here, and we believe it is the grace of Jesus Christ. The question for us today is, are we as a church community prepared to look up from our own busyness, to step backward in our own journey, to help someone along with theirs?

In the church, and in our country, we are obsessed with progress. But some of our progress might need to be redefined. Are we focused on our own personal progress, or are we concerned with the progress of our entire community? Sometimes for a community to grow, we need to put our personal desires on hold. We might have to sacrifice something we want, in order to help someone else in their journey.

In all honesty, that is why I am becoming a coach for Franklin County high school. There is a lot going in all of our lives, and along with that, time is a precious commodity. Soccer was such a defining aspect of my life, because I had so many coaches that helped me. Who gave up their time and energy to help me. I want to give that to others. I had so many teachers help me in my thinking and writing, I want to give that to others. I had Sunday school teachers guide me and love me, I want to give that to others.

You can probably name the people in your life who did the same for you. Are we willing to look up from our own agendas, our own prejudices, and our own wants…to mentor and guide others in their journey. It is what the wise men call us to do. Seek Jesus. And help others to do the same.

Tonight, we are gathering once again to make a decision about a new building. It is a decision we are going to make as an entire church. And while the question is ever before us, does this aid in our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? The truth is, building a new building requires great sacrifices from our members now for the benefit of those who have yet to step through our church doors.

There will be questions: What about cost, who will come here, do we want them here, what about maintenance, what about relationships of people during this? And these are good questions that need to be thought through, but they are questions that can distract us from the one question that really matters. Are we a church that looks out for ourselves, or are we focused on the glory of God? Are we concerned primarily about our church members, or are focused on those who to come to our doors asking…I’ve heard God has done something amazing, can you tell me about it?

And these questions aren’t just limited to a building. Are we a church who is willing to give our time to the children that come here? To help them as someone helped us? To help the youth, because someone helped us? To sing, because someone once sang to us? To teach, because someone once taught us?

We must remember those things. That we are where we are in our faith journey because someone looked up from the distractions and progress of their own way, and guided us.

Johnny Varner put it best to me one time. I didn’t ask him his permission to tell this story this morning, so it is a surprise, but I don’t think he will mind. When I first arrived here six months ago, we had a building committee meeting. And I wanted as much information as possible so I could sort of understand where we were. And I asked the question of the building committee…why are we building? Do we need one, do we want one, or is it just something we are doing because that is what you do as a church, you build things? And Johnny said…because this was a church that helped form me in my faith, and I want it to be a place that forms my grandchildren in their faith. I want this to be a place that they can come, even when I can’t come here anymore.

I don’t think there is a better way to say it. There are still seekers who come to this church. Of all ages. And the question we must ask ourselves is are we willing to look up, see the star, and help others find what they seek? The love, grace, and peace of Jesus Christ, that brings life. It is my prayer that we remember all those who helped us, and we are willing to be that person for someone else. That nothing distract us from seeing what Jesus is doing in our community, and in the world. Something big is happening…don’t miss it.