B Christmas 2 January 4, 2009 Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 84:`-8; Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a; Matthew 2:1-12 January 4, 2009 – Annual Parish Meeting Our Annual Meeting will take [took] place today during First Sunday Breakfast – we figured out that is the way to have good attendance and make the meeting enjoyable/palatable! Every January we have this meeting of the parish. Our vestry moves forward as three members complete their term - and we welcome three new members. The vestry unveils the new budget. We summarize the outgoing year of 2008, and look forward to 2009. Over the last few years we have put an emphasis on organizing ourselves – primarily we’re working through our committee system which is set up to facilitate better cooperation and communication among us as we go about the worship and work we’ve been given to do. As I looked over what I said to you on this day last year, I thought about following the same outline and updating how we are doing with our Horizon initiatives, how to provide a workable structure for us to build our life together as a parish. …and what might be next. But I got the sense that, while we will continue to tend to the structures we have in place, and adjust them as our parish grows both in depth and breadth, I’d like to focus on a compass, a plumb line, for us for this next year. offered by the reading in Jeremiah. This section of Jeremiah is the scene of a great homecoming. A little background… For a long time, the chosen people of God, the nation of Israel, had been divided into two kingdoms – Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Jerusalem- the capital city, and its temple-the center of worship, was located in the south, in Judah. Now, the exiles from the north are coming home to Jerusalem. And, it is not the Jerusalem they left many years before. It would be like, at the end of the Civil War, the North and the South had become divided, two governments, and the White House, the national monuments, and the national cathedral all had been destroyed . For such a homecoming to be a success a lot would have to happen. Can you picture what it would look like today – to see exiles returning to their home after a long time of war, or foreign occupation, or a natural disaster of monstrous proportions. I see a haggard bunch, trudging back, knowing that all they had been forced to leave behind will not have remained. They have not eaten well. They have not received good spiritual food. They have not been able to celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter or Valentine’s Day in many years. Maybe they observed these cherished days in memory and words. But they’ve tasted no turkey, decorated no tree… no flowering of the cross, no cards. And what of the people - their own people who had remained - from whom they had been long separated - Aalot of woundedness on both sides would need to be healed. Fear, distrust, loss of identity, questions of ownership. There would also need to be extensive restoration. Far more would need to be restored than just the buildings themselves. In Jeremiah’s scene the people are weakened by this long isolation from their home. They are returning blind, lame, grieving, and truly suffering many hardships. But, then, we are given a picture of transformation as they head toward home. Can you imagine what would happen to such people if they were expecting to find everything prepared and waiting for their return? Clean water flowing through all the pipes, and plenty of familiar food – turkey or coca-cola or your favorite vegetable, your favorite dessert – waiting for you? Meaningful work, books to read, familiar music…sweet tea? What would you want to find prepared and waiting for your return? For those returning to Jerusalem this is described as brooks of flowing water - after being in a dry land; a smooth path - after a long time of stumbling through foreign life. A sense of family, neighborhood, community is waiting. Upon their return they are to be treated as a favorite child is treated by a parent. Not as forgotten exiles who have lost their place and have nothing to return to. Waiting for them is a sense of worth, identity, belonging… …the same P.O. box you once had, a library card with your name on it, a job, the education you didn’t finish… Jeremiah gives us a picture… that God has indeed been preparing for them, expecting them, waiting for them. As the weary travelers move into this place prepared for them,they become transfigured. They become radiant as they return home. They find food, herds, watered gardens. Surely they will begin to dance and laugh, and celebrate it all. What does this picture have to do with the Church, and with Grace-Calvary? In a very true sense, the Church is made up of people who believe they have come from God and that this life is all about returning home to God, the smooth path being the way of Christ, a path paved with God’s grace. We assemble ourselves in an intentional way because we believe that God has a special purpose for us. That we have an important part to play in God’s plan to help everyone find their way home. That even in our imperfect state the grace of God will shine through us. That somehow as we come into this community, God is patiently and lovingly employing the life of Christ as the cornerstone of a temple prepared waiting to receive all who arrive. [Joined to Christ, we find ourselves fixed upon that mystery where humanity and divinity, creature and creator, finite and infinite, heaven and earth, are held together in a way that we and God can dance together, co-mingle as we become more and more at home with God and each other. Humanity finding its perfect form. Divinity taking joy in the culmination its perfect design.] In other words, we believe that by the grace of God, as we who are members of this assembly/body of Christ/temple meet each other, worship together, help each other through tough times, reach out in love to others in need; as we bump against each other, sort ourselves out, learn from each other, and when at our best, truly love each other…. We are those making the capital city ready for all who want to come home. What do people need from a church in 2009? Three basic things: An easy entry. God’s love. A safe place to grow. The same thing Jeremiah described. An easy entry. Where the path is smooth and the threshold low enough to enter easily.No uneasy stumbling, no awkward fumbling. A place where people find themselves welcomed….expected and waited for. God’s love. Just as a favorite child walks through the door and is met by it’s parent, we all need to be recognized with love and welcomed with joy. And then, safely at home, allowed to encounter God and come to know God’s love for us. A safe place to grow. Many are the waters that provide what each of us needs to grow into the person God created us to be. Some of us thirst spiritually – and need guidance and companionship as we seek an inner relationship with God. Some of us thirst socially – to belong, to be connected to God through people and working together. Some of us thirst intellectually – and search for ways to know God through understanding. There are many ways. As we hold these three in front of us as a plumb line for everything we do, There is one thing about the Church we need to remember. There is no clear distinction between the ‘been heres’ and the ‘come heres’. Folks who have been in this church for many, many years still arrive with the same hopes . Easy entry, to find God’s love, to have a safe place to grow. On the other hand, someone who has never walked up the front steps and stepped into this space may be coming into this door as the magi approached the Christ Child – bringing gifts that are needed among us. We are all - at the same time - heading home - here expecting - the arrival of others. So, let’s hold these three up as our compass, our plumb line for this year: An easy entry. God’s love. A safe place to grow.