Sermon: Jesus' Theatre is Ubuntu (Matthew 25:31-46), Nov 26, 2017

God’s theatre is ubuntu

Matthew 25:31-46

"Have you ever wondered how theatre can be a good model for church? Theatre gives people the opportunity to come together to share a space, and a spiritual and emotional connection. It is a dynamic time, a conversation, a chance to experience ubuntu." - Ha Na

Let’s imagine that we perform today’s reading in a theatre. In the play we are the righteous ones who ask the king, “When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?” Jesus is the king who answers back to us, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Let’s also imagine that we are in an interactive play which allows some participation from the audience (ourselves) with the lead actor (Jesus). I have heard from many people about how Immanuel appreciates the tradition of Dessert Theatre. You all know that the presentation of any play requires the art of collaboration, work and creativity shared by diverse people, unique talents. The process can be both exhausting and exhilarating. I will be excited to experience how Dessert Theatre has been an exciting part of our culture. I am interested because church is supposed to be like theatre. Theatre can be a very good model for how we do church because theatre gives people the opportunity to come together to share a space, and a spiritual and emotional connection. It is a dynamic time, a conversation, a chance to experience ubuntu.  

Last Thursday, my husband and I gave ourselves a golden opportunity. We bought two tickets to enjoy the play Ubuntu: the Cape Town Project. (By the way, it runs until tonight, Nov 26, at the Prairie Theatre Exchange.) The night spent watching the excellent play was a great evening; we even had a glass of wine. In fact, this was the first time we’ve gone to the theatre in Canada. Since our kids have grown up a little, we have time to get out of the house and enjoy ourselves as a couple. Yes! Now we can quench our thirst for some culture - great progress for a young immigrant family! 

Ubuntu is the philosophy and ethic which can be captured in a few memorable statements: “I am because you are, and you are because I am” or “I am what I am because of who we all are.” It has become widely known outside of Southern Africa - especially South Africa - through the ubuntu theology of Desmond Tutu, overcoming Apartheid. Ubuntu has fascinated me ever since I first learned about it some years ago. At the time, I immediately saw that ubuntu is a necessary evolution for our Christian faith; it is especially timely in these acrimonious days of division. Ubuntu teaches us to seek right knowledge about other cultures and people and who we are, and strengthen our links to each other. 

As Richard Wagamese, an Objibway writer from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario wrote in his book, Embers, “I’ve been considering the phrase ‘all my relations’ for some time now. It’s hugely important. It’s our saving grace in the end. It points to the truth that we are related, that we are all connected, that we all belong to each other… The most important word is ‘all’. Not just those who look like me, sing like me, dance like me, speak like me, pray like me. ALL my relations. That means every person, just as it means every rock, mineral, blade of grass, and creature. We live because everything else does.” 

What I learn from Wagamese’s words is our world is a big theatre of ubuntu. The most exciting message is that we all are different, yet strive to find a common and authentic language of love and voices acknowledging that we are one humanity. The 21st century is really a new age when we need to rethink our ways along ubuntu pathways, in all relations. People migrate between continents through pain and hope. This era calls us: we who don’t look the same, don’t sing the same, don’t dance the same, don’t speak the same, don’t pray the same, must come together to work together. Ubuntu means that we are intrinsically interlinked, and therefore have a responsibility to one another. 

From Ubuntu: The Cape Town Project

In addition, another aspect last Thursday’s play opened up to me was that in African tradition, ubuntu is much bigger than the secular, disenchanted, Westernized scientific/medical worldview about life, health, and the universe. Ubuntu touches deeply to our innate sense of interconnectedness with spiritual dimensions and even ancestors. You speak to your ancestors and those who have gone before, through prayer, through ritual - though real human love. The world is so dynamic. Our relations encompass everything in time. The past and the present are interconnected through lives. Ubuntu is the beautiful depiction that explains how we are spiritually open to everything in every possibility. Therefore, all people, all beings, all things know that they have a place, they belong, they are true, they are respected, they are connected. 

Here’s my favourite story that taught me what it is really like to be a friend to someone who does not look like me, sing like me, dance like me, speak like me. That was the moment when I learned that culture is the essence of what makes human beings human and unique. Personally, African cultures, while I acknowledge that African culture is not monolithic but consists of many different cultures, really inspire me. I laugh with learning. I met a young Kenyan woman in Geneva, Switzerland. I was selected as a young adult to represent the UCC, Canada, as a student steward among 20 young people from all over the world who served at the Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches. This young woman, Gloria Mabonga, from Kenya, was 3-5 years younger than me. She was late arriving in the first week, so she was looking for a friend during the rest of the two weeks there. I think I was chosen :) What I immediately learned from her was I was meeting a person who came from a completely different culture, one which has completely different expectations about friendship and relationships. She seemed to believe that if I am her friend, I should act on the criteria which are obvious to her from her cultural understanding of friendship but not so obvious to me! This difference created intercultural “thrills”. 

I can highlight three of them. My second Kenyan friend confirmed that two of the three are really Kenyan customs. I’ll tell you the three - and you guess which are the two Kenyan customs and which is just Gloria. (Like Two truths and a lie.) 

The first thing Gloria asked me to do for her (and it was only the second day) was combing her braided hair with special oil. She said that’s what friends do in Kenya. The second thing was this: we were on the way back from a museum, and we got tired. Gloria said: “I need to go to the washroom.” 

I nodded, telling her with my body language, “Go and find it for yourself.” 

However, she stood there, not moving, as if she was insisting on something. She looked at me for some seconds, and finally said, “You need to come with me. That’s how we do for each other.” 

The third was that we were in the botanical garden (the picture). At the center of that glass building was the staircase to go up to the top, and in front of us was a tall, big palm tree. She looked at me. This time, I got a little scared. “Ha Na. Can I jump?” “What?” 

“I can jump to the tree to get down to the floor. It’s easy to us. Can I do it?” “Oh no… Don’t.” I grabbed her hand to go down with me. My second Kenyan friend laughed to hear this and said, certainly that’s Kenyan. 

Jesus’ stories are Jesus’ theatre. In his theatre, we learn how we speak, how we sing, how we dance, and how we pray, and how we play our role as if we act along with Jesus, with God being the creative director. In the new play, in God’s Kin-dom, we act as if we are the close kin to each other because we are. How we sing a song of authentic love to each other, how we share our responsibilities to one another makes us dynamic. It is really an ubuntu kind of character. Jesus’ theatre is ubuntu. 

Archibishop Desmond Tutu offered a definition of ubuntu in his 1999 book. “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”

Nelson Mandela also explained: “A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food and attend him. That is one aspect of ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around to be able to improve?” 

“Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” is really about how we become ubuntu, how we find the face of Christ in the world. Jesus invites us to jump up to the stage to participate and act with him; to take time to think of everything in light of spirituality: how we speak with people, how we sing with people, how we dance with people, and even how we “jump” up OR down the stage with other fellow actors in God’s theatre, because, like you see in Jan Richardson’s picture Christ among the Scraps (Please follow the link to see her picture: 
http://paintedprayerbook.com/2008/11/19/christ-among-the-scraps/), the face of Christ is yet to be discovered in the beautiful scraps among us. 

Sermon: WWJS... About?: Jesus/Business (Matthew 25:14-20), Nov 19, 2017

WWJS… About 

Matthew 25: 14-30 

As an acronym, WWJS almost sounds conventional now, yet still relevant: What Would Jesus Say… Something we need to ask in our community. WWJS… What would Jesus say, if he were here with us, present to our question, if we could explore the story with him and discover a new, mighty lesson that would inspire us to dream something new?

Today’s message is largely inspired by the book Fishing Tips: How Curiosity Transformed a Community of Faith, written by John Pentland. Here’s a description of the book which has inspired many, many United Church folk across Canada to engage with visioning and discussions based on Pentland’s nine fishing tips. 

“Fishing tips is an open invitation to be curious. John Pentland reflects on how Hillhurst United said ‘yes’ to throwing the nets on the other side of convention. The result was innovative, invigorating and transformative.” When Pentland started at Hillhurst United Church in 2004, located at the edge of downtown Calgary, the Sunday attendance was 80-100 people, Sunday School, less than 10, demographics, mostly elderly, Par givers 24, Monthly offering, $2,400, community, 120 families, annual budget $120,000, Sunday lunch 45-50 attending, website, minimal activity, social media, none, staffing, traditional staff model, one clergy/one office administrator/one organist, advertising, traditional-newspaper. In the year 2015, Sunday attendance 350-400 people, Sunday school, 257 registered/100 attending, demographics, variety of ages, family focus, PAR givers, 162, monthly offering $ 26,000, community, 435 families, 1000 on email list, annual budget $857,000, Sunday lunch 150 attending, website, active, 2,613 hits per month, social media 1725 on Facebook, Twitter 495, staffing 28 paid staff/hundreds of volunteers, advertising, media savvy, frequent stories. These are the statistics according to the first chapter, Numbers Tell a Story, in Fishing Tips.

If these numbers were the most engaging part of the story, if I didn’t agree with the ministry’s theology and community values, I wouldn’t introduce Fishing Tips to you. In fact, their theology is something I am sure our Immanuel people would eagerly embrace. Their community values are beautifully materialized in varied ministries; they are grounded in radical hospitality, spirituality, social justice, risk-taking. Plus, their affirming ministry is a hallmark that attracts many seekers in the city. Their numbers tell a story of transformation – but then again, numbers tell a lot of stories, even in today’s parable of the Talents. This parable depicts ‘talents’ as the seeds for business, the seeds for growth, the seeds for investment. The master in the parable seems to believe that the talents are best used in creating stories. 

In today’s parable, the master leaves town and entrusts his property to his servants. Upon his return, the master praises and rewards those who had sought ways to increase their investment, but he berates the fearful one, who only tried to not lose what he had been given. Of course, there are some creative, compelling interpretations of the last servant’s action, – but today, I would like us to stay with the traditional lesson about the use of talents to increase them. The servants are entrusted with large amount of money. A talent was equivalent to approximately 6,000 denarii, that is, the earnings of a day labourer for twenty years. In Luke, the departing slaveholder, the master, gives instructions: “Do business with these until I come back.” In Matthew, the master leaves what to do with the money to each person’s initiative. The first slave, Matthew reports, the one who received five talents went off immediately and worked with them and gained five more. (Nothing’s written to describe how the slave doubled his money.) For the last servant, the master’s assignment is no privilege, but a terrifying responsibility because he fears failure, and fears severe punishment if he fails. So he buries the talent.

Pentland states, “If we were forced to choose just one Biblical phrase as a mantra, it could well be ‘Do not be afraid!’” It applies in so many places in our lives! What is it about fear that puts generosity and gratitude at risk? What is it about fear that causes us to bury our treasure? Why is burying our treasure unfaithful?” Pentland continues, “Jesus drew for us a vision of Kingdom that is like a mustard seed - something that holds an enormous creative expression incongruent with its tiny self. Jesus also used the phrase, “Where your heart is there will your treasure be.” - Let your love guide you, let it crack open that tiny mustard seed.” 

When I most needed to hear the heartbeat within me, last Spring, I learned that I would need to find new definitions of ministry and leadership that I would be able to engage by heart. Something I would agree to theologically, so I would happily embrace it, to learn and grow. Especially as I was keenly interested in developing an essential, compelling, and functional definition and principle of leadership, I was searching for something which would work for me and work for the United Church. I found some fresh expressions in Fishing Tips. I wrote down my discoveries in my new journal, which I bought and kept with love to record my breakthroughs through a difficult, discerning, searching time. I even gave my notebook a name: “Life Abundance File”. When I open it, it smells like roses, (as I inserted the rose petals from my own garden) and the cover page says, “Blessing and Abundance are always present.”

In the pages I wrote on leadership, I can find my favourite quote from Fishing Tips: “Five-star level leadership holds an outward view, always considering, what, creatively, is possible.” I really believe leadership is about making possible what is possible. I live with it; I want us to all live with it! 

I am still very consciously aware of the implicit patriarchy and power which play in the field of most business models, yet, what I learned anew, through last summer, was the value of (social) entrepreneurship for church ministry - without sacrificing equity. I learned that if a business model can meld creative expression and Christian passion for sharing the good news to reach out to diverse people, through interesting and inclusive programs, a hybrid of business and church can be the best model going forward. For this, we need to find a model for leadership that will enable this ideal collaboration of business and ministry. This is especially good for those who have known the experience of marginalization; (As we know, marginalization can have many causes: colonization, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, poverty, addiction, grief, age.) since life has taught them to see the gaps, many of these people are often able to teach others how to build bridges. With encouragement, marginalized people are often the right people to seek, creating inspiring opportunities. Entrepreneurship is really about finding and creating new opportunities, especially the uncontested, future-positive, new expression of ministry, building success. Our job as church is the task of a treasure-seeker, finder, enabler, and even seller.

For this task - growing with opportunities - I appreciate what Pentland suggests in the fifth fishing tip: Paying for what you want, not what you have, with the only condition being that we must be the dreamer, passionate people who know what we want; who know that the ground under our feet is not deficit - the bottom line of the budget -, but the abundance still available in all circumstances. What is faith? It’s unmooring ourselves into the abundance, treasure-wise: people, community, diversity, stories and love. Abundance as intention-wise, life-energy-wise, and let’s not forget: intention carries money, money carries stories. Pentland says, so often churches try to fund their future with what is left over from the bottom line of the budget - a few hundred dollars or, worse, a deficit. For example, if the church doesn’t have youth in their midst, the youth group budget may be taken out in the next year. However, as people of stories, we are encouraged to shift our minds to always budget for growth.

My hunch is, so far, our people at Immanuel are not fear-based scarcity-model thinkers. We have been extremely generous, and that’s not all - we value risk-taking in our faith journey. I hope that our future-oriented questions will engage us in meaningful conversations and help us reach consensus on what we want, over what we have, with each round of changes we make, asking always, What Would Jesus Say… What Would Jesus Say about our dreams? Our possibilities? Our opportunities? 

I would wish to affirm that paying for starting an excellent Christian Education program and building community engagement through this venue can be one good example of seeking “opportunities”. With good vision, strategy and energy, what we seed will pay us back with the fruits of our faith being multiplied. We are not just doing jobs. We are doing ministry. If it is ministry, what excites you? How can you embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship with your work? We are doing faith. We are doing miracles. We are doing business, trading and dealing with the huge talents of so many people. When that happens, and the Master comes home, we’re not digging in the dirt to show the seed is still a seed; we can point, instead, to the miraculous materialization of Life’s abundance. What would Jesus say about that? 

                                    WWJS About… ?

Sermon: ... Because The Light is Our Shining Treasure (Matt 25:1-13), Nov 12, 2017

Message: … because the light is our shining treasure.

Matthew 25:1-13

In our faith journey, time is an interesting factor. We live in the present - the here and now - with the well-founded belief that this moment will progress with time. The hands of the clock, a very precise machine as it is supposed to be, will make perpetual circles, with no mistake in pointing to the right time. Of course, to do that, the clock must be fully charged, and oh yes, we must remember to turn back the clock for Standard time. Last Tuesday night at City Hall, it was very interesting to see people set their wall clock one hour backward, during the middle of the meeting at the courtroom. (I thought that’s the kind of thing I might see in church - not such a place as the City Hall courtroom.) We clapped and cheered for the person who rose up and set the clock right, who grinned, and laughed with us. Some humourous moments are good icebreakers. 

Jesus is really an excellent story-teller; he always knows the perfect icebreaker for every crowd. In his parables, time is always an interesting factor; He knows how to use it in his stories. Some great examples are found in the stories we hear today in the morning and tonight at 7 pm! (Just a friendly reminder: we will celebrate the Covenanting Service, at 7 pm, please come for this joyful service.) The stories we’ll tell this evening are the Treasure and Pearl parables. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” In these stories, time, among other things, makes the narratives interesting. 

Time works in the parables in that the normalcy of the man’s or the merchant’s time (past-present-future) is abruptly, but happily, “shattered.” The future the man had planned and projected for himself is totally invalidated by the advent of the Treasure which opens up a new world for him. His ordinary time is confronted with new, unforeseen possibilities. 

The point of these stories of treasures and the pearl is that God is playful and creative with time, and loves these subversive actions: ‘reversion’, ‘invalidation’, ‘confrontation.’ And with finding the God-given treasure, the man’s and the merchant’s lives - past, present, future - are happily “shattered.” The clock-bound, “needle” time, (In Korea, we call the “hands” of the clock - the “needles.”) halts/stops/pauses. Astonishing, overwhelming joy has filled the treasure-finder, and so, the presumed linear-time plans and future projects lose their gravity. 

On the other hand, the Parable of the Ten Virgins we hear in our morning service tells us what the kingdom of God is like from a different “time”, “clock” view.

In the patriarchal society in which this story was first told, women, the virgins, are depicted as less capable, less responsible, less wise than men. Their social location as women means that they have to prove to the males they are wise, acceptable to the society. There are certain aspects of misogyny playing in this story, for sure. This story certainly gives the Gospel message, mixed with the traditional admonition toward women to be watchful, virtuous, and vigilant. And these standards separate the young women into two categories: those who are considered to be ready and good and those who aren’t. While we keep in mind the patriarchy in this story, we also see Jesus, the storyteller, playing with “time.” Speaking about young women, the virgins, cleverly or spiritually responding to their context, illustrated in “time”. A delay occurs. The bridegroom, whom the virgins have been waiting for, is delayed. The bridegroom is not yet coming. The hands of the clock have passed the appointed time. The waiting wedding party is not even sure whether he will eventually come in the end. Like in the stories of treasures and the pearl, the expected time is again “shattered.” However, if the man and the merchant’s time are shattered for the unexpected, astonishing, overwhelming joy of finding the treasure of exceptional value, the virgin’s time is shattered because of the delay, not because of joy. It is important to note that the time is not shattered because of “sleeping”. The story tells us that both the “wise” and the “foolish” fall asleep because the time is then the deep middle of the night. God doesn’t forbid us from taking care of ourselves with sleep. If we have to wait, we wait. If we need to sleep, we sleep. I’m sure that many of us experienced the disappointing time when a flight is delayed for hours, or even cancelled! If it is delayed, we wait, while waiting, we may sleep. The truth in the story is that time is “shattered”, because of the extra oil. The wise who have prepared enough oil for burning their lamps even with the delay are able to welcome the bridegroom with the light of their lamps, and the wedding begins.

We might wonder why this story divides the young women this way, especially when the wise virgins could still lend some oil to the others so that all ten of them could be one community in solidarity, rather than upstaging each other in competition for the bridegroom. This appropriate question creates wonder. What does it mean to us to hold a lamp, a burning bright light? What does it mean if we say, we must keep our light, our lamp, our torch because only if each of us has a torch will there be enough light, and will we light the others.

When I was preparing this sermon, I was thinking of our Back Forty presentation at City Hall this week. The committee who dealt with our application could have made a decision at the meeting, but the decision was delayed. We supported our people, and listened to our neighbours. I was wondering what message would be encouraging to tell each other, if we honour this time of delay, centering ourselves on our spiritual position to understand where we are now, how we are doing. What would be our light, our lamp for us to keep, now, and hold for one another, and for our future? Interestingly, one thing is on hold, but we have two other things in immediacy which call for joy, excitement, anticipation and curiosity. Tonight, for sure! Many people and our elders put their creative spirit and talent into creating this joyful service to celebrate covenanting (“marrying”) Immanuel people with their new minister (which is me, I am very pleased to say) with Winnipeg Presbytery and with God. It will be a passion-burst moment to celebrate! Second, we are anticipating the welcome of our new Sunday School director, if the interview is successful next week! 

What makes us continue to be faithful is the extra oil: God calls us to the excitement of experiment, the energy of curiosity, and the continuing discovery of wonder. Our journey is really discovering and finding the treasure with positivity, seeing the abundance in our midst. In this journey, we discern and declare what we would want, and pay for it. Have you noticed that the three parables of today all stress the verbs, such as “find, buy, sell”: The man who finds the hidden treasure, the merchant who buys the very fine pearl, and the virgins who prepare extra oil for the deep midnight and tell the others “Go and buy some oil for yourselves.” (which means the virgins have gone to the dealers and bought the extra oil for themselves, in advance. They have paid for it.) I would like to repeat the brilliant part of the story: When the unprepared said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out,” the wise replied, “No, there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” The action this story tells us is required of us, that we are called to do, is to keep our light burning bright. 

In our faith journey, time is an interesting factor. How we understand our time and how we are creative and playful with our God-given time is really the oil that will be our spiritual sustenance. In such times of waiting, in our life and for our church, what we can do and must do is look at the bright light within us, and to keep our light, keep our cause, keep our lamp and use it to light the lives of others, because the light is our shining treasure.

Sermon: Conversation Is... (1 Thessalonians 2:9-13), Nov 5, 2017

Message: Conversation Is…

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Last Friday, I had lunch with the United Church ministers who serve the congregations in Kildonan and Transcona. One of the ministers, Carol, asked me, “So, are you having a good transition at Immanuel?” I didn’t even need a second to answer the question. “Yes. I am really having a good transition, because I find that this congregation is unusual. People are very open to having deeper conversations with each other, and eager to find and create meaning and purpose. And we ask questions. I like it. I embrace this transition. It’s good and I needed it.”

As you well know, one of our many strengths at Immanuel is that we engage each other in conversation. The ideal I have for us would be that we hold each other like a conversation. We do it often, but I would like to see us do that all the time! In today’s reading, Paul says “When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word.” 

Paul’s statement really makes me ponder what makes our conversation loving, holy, worthy, and therefore God’s?

One great example from this past week: I was having my regular check-in with my M & P liaison, and I couldn't believe my ears when she reflected on my message, saying, “Our new governance, especially the Council, does not intend to operate on the business model which is - as you said in your sermon - based on patriarchy and power…” I have experienced this amazement many times here at Immanuel so far, from different people, but every time I hear these words coming from our leaders’ mouths - race, patriarchy, power, white privilege - I am so impressed, empowered; I get goosebumps! I didn’t even hear those words at Winnipeg Presbytery! Second, it really tells me that people here deeply listen to each other, and their new minister! We really hold each other in conversation! 

Conversation is the opposite of a monologue - a true heart-to-heart.

Another example: I enjoy meeting with Leslie and Lynne, our creative and thoughtful Worship cluster elders, because every time I meet with them, after each meeting I feel that our whole time was held as one beautiful, blooming conversation, even though I think the last feedback I share with them at the end of each meeting has always been, when they asked how it was, “Oh, I am challenged,” in the most positive way. It is a very refreshing experience, because for a long time before coming to Immanuel, I have been thinking that I am the one who’s challenging others. At Immanuel it is reversed! I am challenged to go deeper, to be truer, and to really engage with the questions that we present to each other, between us, with absolute trust. We value the importance of questions - the key element which transforms conversations into treasures. 

At our last meeting, we were talking about communion. I especially appreciated how meaningful communion is for Immanuel: not just as a formal liturgy which completely matches and responds to our expectations, and goes no deeper than that. What our elders taught me was that our passion surpasses this expectation - response cycle. Communion must be a communal, resurrection experience with Jesus, for us through language and hymns which are thoughtfully picked and prayerfully written to give fresh human spirit and invite us into a theological conversation. I loved it. Communion as a theological conversation. Wow! Okay! Then I got to wondering, (silently thinking to myself) ‘What about time? People will not be happy if the service gets longer!’ Then, Lynne looked at me, as if she read my mind, and said, “You can give a very short message. It can be four minutes. And people like it.” 

Last week I met with Nancy, my predecessor and friend (more safely, colleague; I once called her my ‘elder’ - and she said, “Oh, I am really not.”) for a conversation about some other questions. I have many questions – but you already know that. One reason for all of my questions is Immanuel’s unusually creative congregation - always evolving. For example, Immanuel’s new governance model, based on eldership and equal sharing of power. Its beauty and depth of Christian feeling impress me deeply – and inspire so many questions! At the end of our conversation, Nancy and I briefly talked about communion. I said, “So you wrote communions!” I loved the moment when Nancy said, in the exact same words as Lynne’s! (which tells me conversation is heart to heart to heart!) “You can give a very short message. It can be just four minutes. And people like it.” 

I should admit that it’s a challenge: For people like me, a sermon in 4 minutes is harder than 16 minutes!

One reason why I like to be here with you is always, always there’s one more thing that comes as a question: Interesting, inviting, and enlivening. Because we are passionate, we ask questions. Because we engage one another and each other’s questions in conversation, we get excited. We have this trust built on the life togetherness you have been so faithfully nurturing for each other: in our journey, we will be held, like a treasure, no one being left alone. Paul says, “When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word.” 

In the most loving, holy, worthy conversation, which is an ideality, and the only true way which will eventually lead us safely into the future, as one, holy, brave community, we will learn how to be completely in the moment of being oneself while at the same time being open to others to teach us. Teaching is a gift. Sometimes, this makes us vulnerable, but it also makes us try what we have not done before, so that we become a little more experimental with one more adventure each time. Immanuel has been, is, and will always be evolving in times of new changes, new transition, new learning, discovering the new questions we have not asked and thought about before. May we embrace new reasons to be Immanuel, in holy, loving and worthy conversations. 

Conversation Is… Heart to Heart to Heart!