| The word of the LORD came to
Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and proclaim to it the message that
I tell you." So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh,
according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an
exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. Jonah
began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he
cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed
God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and
small, put on sackcloth. …When God saw what they
did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed
his mind about the calamity that he had said he would
bring upon them; and he did not do it. |
|
| Jonah 3:1-5, 10 |
| Now after John was arrested, Jesus
came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and
saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As
Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and
his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they
were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me
and I will make you fish for people." And immediately
they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little
farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John,
who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he
called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the
boat with the hired men, and followed him. |
|
| Mark 1:14-20 |
| Jonah is a fearful man in our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures.
His fear was that the Ninevites would hear the word he had
been given, and believe it! You see the Ninevites were a brutal
people towards Israel. Jonah felt they didn’t deserve
God’s grace and steadfast love. He believed there was
a chance that the people would believe the proclamation and
repent, and he knew that God would be merciful. This is why
he fled Tarshish when he first heard God’s call to proclaim
a word of repentence to Nineveh. He didn’t want to be
a part of God’s mercy for them! The scriptures tell us
only that the people of Nineveh finally did hear a reluctant
Jonah say, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And
they believed God and everyone from the very old to the tiny
baby put on sackcloth, and entered a time of lament and fasting.
Upon hearing Jonah’s proclamation the King of Nineveh
decreed that he and even the animals would fast and cover themselves
in sackcloth and repent of their evil ways. “Who knows?” said
the King, “God may relent…so that we do not perish.” Jonah
was right. The Ninevites believed and turned towards God’s
will and God was merciful towards them. |
| The author of Mark portrays Jesus as one who follows in the
footsteps of John the Baptist and Jonah proclaiming repentence.
But this repentance is one of fulfillment. For in Jesus the
epiphany of God’s reign has become incarnate. It has
drawn near to them in the Christ. This repentence calls for
belief too; belief in the good news. The good news contains
within it every promise, ever hope we could ever dream of in
relation to God. Forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, mercy,
righteousness, love and peace. And so Mark’s gospel tells
us Jesus calls out, “Follow me and I will make you fish
for people.” It is pretty clear that the fishermen have
no idea what fishing for people will mean, except that it is
a promise they can somehow tell Jesus will keep. And Simon
and Andrew left their nets and followed him. Then Jesus called
out to James and John and they followed too. They’d barely
had time to take a quick look at Jesus, yet they believed. |
| God’s tug on people’s hearts to repent, believe
and follow, can be recognized through a few words spoken by
Jonah and Jesus to people who haven’t been schooled in
God’s ways and Word. The folks in these stories are called
to follow God with just a glimpse of who God is. Those who
recognize God in the call do not know the details of God’s
plan for them. Yet their hope is placed squarely within the
glimpse revealed. In acts of obedience, they follow God’s
commands and the scriptures show us that as folks followed
God, more and more was revealed. |
| You and I are gathered together today because at some point
or another, through grace, we glimpsed and recognized this
same hope in God. Maybe it has been a long time since this
hope was renewed in you. Maybe it was this morning. However
it is and was for you, God’s promise of transformation
and assurance of grace is at work here within this church community. |
| We are coming up on an annual American tradition which will
take place the last day of this month called the “State
of the Union” address. Beginning with George Washington,
U.S. Presidents and their administrations have sought to assess
the condition of the union of these United States. Presidents
have had varying degrees of success in actually claiming the
fullness of the state our union is in and setting an agenda
to reflect that state. When radio and TV broadcasts began the
addresses began to shift in focus and unfortunately became
more of a platform for justifying a particular agenda for the
year. |
| We in the church have something to learn from our government’s
attempt to look ahead. In our Annual Meeting, which is the
first Sunday of March this year, our time together will honor
this past year. You could say the report is an assessment of
the last year. But when and where do we look forward as a congregation?
Unlike the President’s State of the Union address our
purpose in looking forward is not for us to set the agenda
of this church, but for us to discern together what God’s
agenda is for us. We discern the “state of the church” through
ongoing conversation that invites transformation as we continue
to follow Jesus together. This conversation began before my
arrival with your church surveys and the PNC’s work as
they spent time discerning from your input some of the ways
God is calling Central Presbyterian Church in this time and
place. |
| I
have only been with you for six months, a very short duration
of time. On both sides we’ve seen only seen a glimpse
of who the other is. Some of us haven’t even had a real
conversation. Yet the Spirit has been at work laying the transformational
seeds of new life and hope within each one of us long before
we knew that we would be called together! God was guiding us
to new life during your interim time and my years at Second
Presbyterian. |
| Our ministry together is partly about our relationships with
one another, but our focus stems from discerning what the Spirit
of God is leading us to together. So I offer a few things I’ve
heard are on your hearts and that I’ve glimpsed in my
short time to help us discern where God is leading and to help
assess the “state of our church.” |
| The Session, Deacons and I had a wonderful retreat yesterday
at Camp Asbury on Silver Lake. We had a good time, we fellowshipped,
we took in a bit of nature, some more than others as one car
got stuck in the mud and others helped to get that car unstuck.
It was a time to see new perspectives and remember where we’ve
been and what we’ve done in the past and look forward
to our future together. We were led in this endeavor by a book
written by a UCC minister Anthony Robinson called Transforming
Congregational Culture. Robinson asked us to consider, “What
is the business of the church in this time and place?” By “business” he
means our mission. Then he asks “How’s business
going?” How is our mission going? |
| The mission of our church is set forth in our Mission Statement
which was created before my time with you began. I’d
like to read it to you now so we all have a framework to assess
our church life together. It says “Central Presbyterian
Church is a growing, caring and active Christian community
of faith. We welcome all people into a warm, reflective, spiritually
nurturing and joyous family of believers. We encourage and
respect each other in our ministries and provide worship and
Christian education for all ages with special concern for the
young. With God’s help, we use our time and talents to
promote a more humane, peaceful and just world through active
support of social reform, mission and outreach both within
and beyond our community. While valuing our unique Presbyterian
heritage we promote ecumenical cooperation.” Our mission
statement is solid. It is broad and will serve us well in the
years to come. |
| The answers our church leaders gave to the questions Robinson
raised for us, “What is the business of the church” and “How’s
business going?” ranged from complacent in some parts
of our life together, to steady movement in other areas, to
noting new energy, claiming the tensions that exist here, evolving
mission foci, renewed attention to the care of our members. |
| One leader said, “I’d like to see us open up
more to the Spirit, to step back and give ourselves to discernment
about how to live out our mission in this time and place. Let’s
take the time to do our discernment in a spiritual way.” This
is hard because true discernment takes time and God doesn’t
give us the answers right away. We have to learn to wait together
for some answers. |
| Another area we’ve become complacent in is our giving.
We have a budget deficit again this year. And it’s quite
large. The budget is not the session’s responsibility
alone; it is the responsibility of the whole congregation.
Our giving is a spiritual discipline and a joy! Since this
is our second deficit year in a row, we have some work to do
about assessing our mission priorities and reinvigorating our
individual commitments to yearly pledging. Times when the church
is short in resources are times that we have the opportunity
to open ourselves to discernment and the calling to set our
priorities to make them clear. Our Stewardship and Finance
commission needs your help. We all have opportunity to jump
in and help transform our current financial state through raising
the bar for our giving on a congregational level. |
| In the Mission Statement we claim we believe that we give
priority to education and activities for “the young.” In
today’s world that also means support for parents and
individuals seeking to raise our youth in church. Many of our
youth and parents are stretched thin by the hectic pace of
their lives today. We have begun working on a youth group and
it has been difficult to start something up. To have an actual
youth program with regular educational, social and missional
opportunities will take a commitment of resources from the
entire congregation. We need committed leaders who are willing
to be on the journey of faith with our youth. This is an exciting
challenge and opportunity before us and it will require some
risk on our parts! There is a task force for our open Christian
Education Position to have someone to direct and lead our educational
endeavors. Please pray for the eight members of this task force
and share with them your dreams for our Christian education. |
| An area of growth in recent years has been your desire for
hands-on mission outreach. Your work with Habitat for Humanity,
the Mexico Mission Trip and recently, the trip with Livingston
County Cares show this yearning we have for going out with
our church family to encounter and serve others. I have a hope
for some family friendly mission opportunities to develop in
our local community, so our families with children can begin
to share in that part of discipleship to Christ and can learn
the way with one another. |
| I am convinced that discernment over new ways God may be
leading is nothing new to this congregation, because I’ve
already seen you take risks. We risked opening our Center Street
house to a family in need, displaced from Katrina. You were
more than willing to enter this time of risk and uncertainty
about where the family would come from and how we would fully
provide for them. We survived when it didn’t work out
as we had hoped and our family returned to Mississippi after
only 1½ months. We now have renewed energy for discerning
our call regarding a missional use of our Center Street property
this year. I invite you to join a special task force that will
begin discerning the future of our property in March or April
of this year. |
| Our glimpses of God, the brief moments where we see clearly,
will shape our lives of discipleship if we engage in discerning
them together. I look forward to continuing to discern with
you how to follow God in this time and place and to see the
fruit of this discernment flourish. May we all be open to following
the Spirit as it stirs, shakes and moves us toward transformation
together! |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - January 22, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
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