"ENLARGE THE PLACE OF YOUR HABITATION"

Rev. Jim Petersen

FCUCC

1-24-10

Text: Isaiah 54:1-5          John 15:1-4, 8-12, 16-17

 

Appreciate the perseverance of the preacher - I have found the biblical text for our "Journey of Transformation."  Let's set the historical setting.  You know me.

 

The Israelites are lamenting their lot in life. Indeed, it is another hard time in Hebrew history. The "chosen children" of God?  Ya, right!  Israel is a displaced nation, an excommunicated community, banished to Babylon.  Better to be born in Haiti.  Gone are the glory days of David and Solomon.   The rock of Zion is crushed, the Temple reduced to rubble, the Israelites marched to exile in a foreign land, 586 B.C.  Another sorry chapter for the chosen children.

 

Yet God speaks to God's people.  God hears their mournful cries, and through the prophet Isaiah, God says:  "...break forth into singing and shout for joy."   To a person the people respond, "Say, what?"

 

God continues to the collapsed and cowering community, "Enlarge the place of your tent, let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out...hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes...extend your boundaries on all sides.­..do not be afraid...the Lord Almighty is God's name­."

 

In other words, children of God, quit feeling sorry for yourself. Quit convincing yourselves of your "can't do" attitude.  Quit pretending to be an impoverished people living as you are along the "hang­ing gardens ­of Babylon," one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, for you are my people and you are making me look bad.

 

"Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes."  Get about God's business of "extending your boundaries on all sides."  In other words, this is no time to shrivel and shrink, this is time to rea­ch out and embrace the future with faith, for this is the only time you have and with God nothing is impossible.  So now enlarge my tabernacle!

 

God to the doubting, to the reluctant, to the weary community of Israel living in exile in Babylon.

  

Well, the biblical Word of God reverberates through the centuries.     It echoes down through the ages, passes from one generation to    the next.  As we say around here, "God is still speaking."  We are the hearers today of the prophetic voice of Isaiah calling us, chosen children of God, to be bigger than we think we are, to be better than we believe we are, to be bolder than we imagine we are, through the blessings of God.  So now we are to faithfully embrace the future.  

If not us, then who?

 

Wow!    Could this be, for you never know, could this be the Word of God

speaking today to a mainline church in Great Falls, Monta­na, in a culture today where the mainline has become­ the sideline, where boom­ers boycott the chur­ch, "bo­rn against" nibble our num­bers, and divisive social issues winnow the remnant? Could this be the Word of God speaking to our 120 year old church embarked as we are on a ­"journey of transformation", saying, "Enlarge the place of your tent, let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out...hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes...extend your boundaries on all sides.­..do not be afraid...the Lord Almighty is God's name­"?

 

Could this be the Word of God?  I think so.  I can hear God's Word speaking in the biblical text from Isaiah, "Children of God in the First Congregational UCC, Great Falls, it is time to rediscover your mission that my tabernacle might be growing with my glory and hope, light and love­."

    

Tabernacles (lower screen and show picture of tabernacle) are wonderful places.  In the biblical world a tabernacle was a tent.  Not any ol' goatskin tent, mind you, the tabernacle was a most speci­al tent. It was the house of God, the place where the Hebrews worshiped while they wander­ed in the wilderness.

 

The specifics of the tabernacle, the dimensions, the materials, the contents, are described in detail in Exodus chapters 25-27, such that we can recreate it.  Here you have one artist's rendition before you (on the screen).

 

Actually only the priests entered the tabernacle to make sacrifices at the altar, with the people standing aroun­d.  ­And only the chief high priest was allowed into the "holy of holies" where the Ark of the Covenant which contained ­the Ten Commandments ­resided when not being carried before them, a cloud by day a pillar of fire by night, as they traveled in the wilderness.

 

And now you understand how the curtains might be stretche­d on all sides, how the cords might be lengthened and the stak­es strengthened to enlarge the place of our habitation.  As we start our journey, let us examine the tent of our habitati­on.  Specifically, let us look at our four corner stakes as we dare to enlarge the place of our habitation.  After all, we want to have solid stakes when setting up a tabernacle in the wind-swept Monta­na prairies.        

 

What might the four corner stakes of our tabernacle be?  What is it that holds our tent secure?

 

I suggest:

 

1) Our ability to NAME God.

 

What is it that calls us together?  Why are we here?  What is the foundation upon which our house of faith is built?  Who sees us through the stormy times and builds us up for better times?  Can we name God?  We need to - other people are curious.  There are people who respect you, and wonder why, for heaven's sake, you go to church, and, specifically, why this UCC church?  You know, we have a bit of a reputation.  Can you tell them why you come here?

 

A family is discussing church attendance.  The grandparents are trying to convince their son and daughter-in-law to attend church, especially for the grandchildren, now 5 and 2.  "Well, tell me, Dad, why is it you go to church?" asks the grown son of his father.  The dad gets up and leaves the room.  He's not comfortable discussing his faith.  It's too close to feelings. 

 

 

This is not good enough.  Not any more.  People want to know "why?"  Why do we go to church?  We have to tell them. Sure it is personal, but it is not private.  We have to risk being personal.   Maybe we don't feel so articulate?  That's O.K., people aren't asking for Bible quotes or theologic­al profundities, they are asking for a few honest words from the heart, even if honesty includes doubts, which generally it does.

 

We have not been very good in our kind of church at naming God. We don't do God-talk well.  How do we expect our children to learn?  What do we expect our children to learn?

 

Dorothy Bass, a professor at our Chicago Theological Seminary (UCC), writing on the decline of the mainline Protestant Church, says, "The main failure...is an educational failure: a failure to transmit the meaning and excitement of Christianity from one generation to another, from one person to another.  (Mainline) Protestants have become confused and tentative about appropriating the Chris­tian tradition, both the biblical and as it has come down throu­gh the history of the church­."  (CTS Register, Spring, 1989)

 

We've got to NAME God.  Why are we here?  Well, it's a God thing.  Or reduce it to a Holy Spirit thing, if you will, as Luke does in his telling of the earliest church      in the Book of Acts. ­ Church is about God.  The naming of God in our life.  This is cornerstone stake number one in our holy house.

 

2) Once we name God, we've got to CLAIM God, the second corner stake in our tabernacle.

 

We have got to name God and then we have got to claim God, or more appropriately, let God claim us.  God is real!  God's holy presence graces our lives and makes us holy!  We ought to be more aware of God.  It might help us out.  We give God a general nod, an occasional thought, a milktoast moment.  We need to embrace God, wrestle with God if you will, challenge God and be challenged by God.  Don't be afraid.  God won't disappear in the light of 21^st century knowledge.

 

What if every morning upon awakening we said, "Good morning, God!" as opposed to "Good God, morning."  What if we named God every new day, and asked, expectantly, "What will you have me do today, God?  What is your will for my life today, God?  How can I serve you?"

 

It's not that we would radically alter our routines, though I suspect there would be some modifications.   And it's not as if we would change our vocations.   Homemakers would still make homes,   bus drivers would still drive bus, teachers would still teach, and accountants count.  (Maybe there would be fewer lawyers - no).

 

Mostly we would still be about our same tasks, which help to identify who we are.  But we would also carry with us a greater identity, children of God, commissioned to pronounce the presence of God and called to do the will of God in everything we do.

 

We'd do the same things, and yet they wouldn't be the same, because we would have a different attitude, we would have a different sense of purpose, we would be more centered, collected, connected, on a firmer faith foundation. Failure would be less fearful, and there would be more joy in our living.  More joy - I'd like that!

 

We need to claim God in our lives every morning, so God can announce to us the "good news."  And then as we travel through the day, three times a day, nay five times, we need to call "freeze!" on our­selves, and ask the question, "Is this the will of God?  Is what I am doing right now, the will of God?"  If the answer is "yes," celebrate, and keep on keeping on with gratitude.  If the answer is "no," what I am doing right now is not the will of God, re-pent, that is, turn arou­nd ­­and get on with your life, giving thanks to God for yet anoth­er sav­e.

 

We need to challenge ourselves to name God and CLAIM GOD in our lives, which really is not that much of a challenge if you compare it to God's challenge of naming us and claiming us.

 

3) Once we name God and claim God, then we need to strengthen

the third corner stake of our tent, which is to SHARE God.

 

As the old African proverb goes, "There is only one thing worse than murder in the desert, and that is to know where there is water and not to tell."

 

Our neighborhoods are full of people who are not active in any faith community.  Many of them are looking for water in the desert.  Your congregation is an oasis.  Don't sell yourself short, or God.  You ought to let your neighbors know where you drink of the Spirit.  And why.

 

I'm not suggesting you become flaming evangelists, disturbing the slothful Sunday slumber of your friends and neighbors. Well, on second though­t, what the heck, give it a try!  Though, honestly, we are not called to be mindless cheerleaders.

 

It reminds me of the story of Bob Zuppke, former football coach at U.of Illinois, and a contemporary of the great Knute Rockn­e. Like Knute, Coach Zuppke was a master of the half-time pep talk.  In one particular road game Illinois is woefully behind at half time.  So the coach gives one of his stirring, moving speeche­s, trying to enliven his dispirited, lackluster team.  As he nears the conclusion of his address, his voice raise­s, his pleas become more emotional, and finally to the door he points, saying, "Now let's go through that door and on to victory!"

 

To a man the team arises, teary eyed, chills down the back, pumped, and with visions of victory they run through the door, right into the swimming pool.  (Which is a different kind of oasis.)

 

No, we are not called to headless huckstering, but we do know more than we are saying.  Not to say, not to share, "to know where there is water and not tell...is worse than murder in the desert."

 

Once named and claimed, we must share our God.  People want to hear about God.  Baby boomers are back in church.  Well, some of them.  And more of them are thinking about it.  Look at our last new members received in November.  The average age was 60.  Those are boomers, baby.  Hey, it's taken them awhile, but they're here.  Give them an invitation!  Survey after survey on church growth point out the same thing.  It may be as low as 78%, usually it is in the mid-80%s, but people who join a church do so because a friend invited them!

 

Got friends?  Invite them.  Tell them why you love your church.  (Ushers pass out UCC pamphlet, "16 Ways to Say Why I Love My Church").  We can't keep God to ourselves.  We've got to share God!

 

4) Which leads to our fourth and final corner stake in God's tabernacle.  SHOW God.  We ought to look as if we are enjoying our faith, our churc­h, our relationship to God.

 

A young boy is walking down the street with his grandpa in a little Georgia town.  They come upon an old mule, forlorn, beaten down, on its knees.  Says the boy to the grandpa, "Grandpa, that mule must be a Christian."  Says the grandpa, "Why do you say that?"  Answers the boy, "Because when I go to church that's what the people look like."

 

Not in our kind of church, eh?  Well, I remember a conversation with one of my colleagues in the Conference not long ago.  A couple had visited the churc­h, and he was calling on them.  He asked if they would be returning.  They responded somewhat tentatively, and then mentioned to the minister the question their 10 year old son raised after the worship service.  "How come the people are so sad there­?"  True story!

Whoa!  Our kind of church.  We ought to look as if we are enjoying it. We need to demonstrate our faith with our face.

 

If we have good news to share, we should joyfully share it.  If we are a hope-filled people, our lives should show ­it.  Which is not to gloss over the dark side of life, to the contrary, we are to be a light in the darkness, a way station for the weary, an island of calm amidst the chaos, a touch of comfort within life's sorrows, a warm spot in a cold world, an oasis in the desert.