Just Imagine!
1 Peter 2:2-10 Easter 5 Year A
Just imagine!
What is the first thing
that pops into your mind when you hear the phrase, “Just Imagine”?
Lottery advertisements?
(Ontario has a lottery
called 649 that used the phrase “Just imagine” as the way to entice people to
buy the tickets)
John Lennon’s song
“Imagine”?
Today I want you to come
with me as we do a different kind of “Just imagine!”
Just imagine!
At a gathering of
congregational leaders, this question was asked:
What would happen in your congregation if your “professional minister” disappeared and the laity had to do everything from now on?
Don’t tell us what you think you should do, but be honest and tell us what you expect would really happen.
Would anyone notice?
From the sound of the room
and the volume level, this generated quite an energetic conversation.
Just imagine!
Just imagine!
OK, let’s take it further.
What would happen in your congregation if the “wider church” ceased to exist? All of it.Think about that.
And be honest, what do you expect would really happen in that case?
Would anyone notice?
Just imagine!
Maybe your initial response
is one of celebration! Wahoo!! No more interference from outside. No more annual forms. No more meetings to take up the time of our
minister and our “wider church” reps.
Heck! We wouldn’t have to beat
the bushes to find reps anymore!
No more “wider church”
sticking its nose into our business. No
more waiting for the “wider church” to find people to assign to a Joint Needs
Assessment Committee when it’s time to change ministers. Same for Joint Search Committees. No more hoops to jump through and forms to
fill out.
No more Mission &
Service and assessments taking money away from our congregation.
Just imagine!
At first, I suspect the
idea sounds a lot like what many late teen and early 20’s start to think about
moving out of the house.
“Freedom!!” “We can do what we want,
when we want, without Mom & Dad looking over our shoulders.” No more hassles. No more rules. Just do what we want.
Sounds great! Just imagine!
However...
Do you remember your
youthful days? When you moved out on
your own?
Wasn’t it great?! Wasn’t it just what you thought it would
be?!!
Until all your clothes were worn and the laundry
was lying in a pile with no one to wash it for you.
Until all the dishes had been used (perhaps on
both sides?) with no one to wash them for you.
Until the dust was an inch thick and the
cleaning elves didn’t show up.
Until there were bills to be paid and no money
for fun and friends.
Until you were sick and no one was there to help
or comfort you.
Just imagine!
Just imagine what church
life would be like without the “wider church”.
When everything is going smoothly it could even work, for a while.
Until...
No support, no
encouragement, no sober second thought, when the time comes to consider what
your ministry needs are and how to enact the vision God is calling you to
fulfill
.
Heaven forbid, but when the
minister and the congregation aren’t getting along, there is no one to turn
to. You’re on your own. Or when parts of the congregation are in
conflict with other parts of the congregation.
Solve the conflict yourself, or pay a mediator to come in and help,
because you’re on your own.
And you’d better be good at
training your own minister. No “wider
church”, no Discernment committees. No
training for new ministers. No making
sure that people who want to be ministers are actually called and fit for the
position.
Oh, and you’d better like that
minister you have now. No “wider church”
could make it difficult to find a new minister.
It could also make it difficult for a minister to find you, so I hope
you like the ministry situation you have now. You could be stuck this way for a
long time.
Oh, and how do you feel
about lawsuits? Without the “wider
church” to help guide the processes of calling a minister or getting rid of a
minister, the chance for a lawsuit increases.
Improper dismissal. Problems with
benefits and pay.
Even the networks of
support that the “wider church” encourages between congregations would be less
likely to occur. I imagine congregations
becoming more and more self-absorbed and isolated without the links to the “wider
church”. No “wider church” to remind us
of what’s going on “out there”! No “wider
church” to challenge us to try new things and respond to other issues.
Similarly for ministers. The “wider church” provides a natural and
initial set of relationships for ministry personnel when they are new to the
area. A place to meet. A place to share ideas and struggles. A place to ask for help or to celebrate with
others.
The “wider church” has a
real ministry to us as well as through us.
After all, we are
the “wider church”.
And as for no Mission &
Service and assessments to take money away from our congregation, how do you
think so much of the support and resources and help from the “wider church” is
paid for?
No “wider church”? No Mission & Service. No global outreach with the 94 mission and
justice partners around the world, providing education, health care,
sustainable agriculture, clean water, and human rights, except what your
congregation does.
No Mission & Service? No community development and justice work through
64 community ministries, 36 chaplaincies and 20 ecumenical and interfaith
agencies in Canada, except what your congregation does.
No Mission & Service? No support to 84 local congregations and
outreach ministries, no grants for youth programming, no work toward reconciliation
with First Nations, except what your congregation does.
No Mission & Service? United Church resources for study groups,
Sunday School, worship, theological education, church governance and
stewardship; all gone, unless your congregation creates them.
Just imagine!
It’s so important for each
of us to realise that we also are the “wider church”.
Just as each individual follower of Jesus makes
up the congregation, so the congregation, the Pastoral Charge, makes up the “wider
church”.
The Bible tells us that as
followers of Jesus we are like living stones, being built into a spiritual
house. (1 Peter 2:5) I am the church,
just as each of you is the church. It’s
how God intended it to be. Us, together.
So, also, I am the “wider
church”, just as you and this congregation are the “wider church”. Again, it’s how God intended it to be. My ministry, your ministry, our ministry, is
the ministry of the “wider church”. We
are the church, together living out God’s mission to each other and for each other, and
for all the people of God’s world.
Just imagine!
Living without the friends
around us that we call the local church.
Just imagine!
Living without the support
and guidance of that other thing we are, the “wider church”.
I can’t imagine it.
Think about it.
1. Just imagine!
What would happen in your congregation if the “wider church” ceased to
exist?
2. How can this congregation celebrate and lift up
the value and ministry which is ours through “wider
church”?
3.
In your
praying this week, please pray for the ministry of our “wider church”, The
United Church of Canada.
AMEN.