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Jeremiah 29:11-13 As many of you know, Lynde and I are in the middle of an adoption process right now, and one of the things that has struck me recently is the amount of time that I spend thinking about the future…what life will be like in a year, in five years, in twenty five years. I imagine myself taking our little girl to school for the first time, to Cardinals games, even moving her into college. I guess, and most of you could probably tell me, this is a part of preparing to be a parent. When you have children, and as you look into their eyes, you envision the future. As parents, you undoubtedly have hopes and dreams for your children - things you can’t wait for them to experience, conversations you look forward to having, and some you don’t look forward to having. As parents you probably know you don’t want to control every aspect of their life and you recognize that you have to give them a certain amount of freedom, but at the same time, you have hopes and dreams for them that you may or may not share with them. I’ve had several conversations recently with some of the parents in our congregation and they’ve shared with me the struggles they’ve had with their children – both with young children and their adult children…and a lot of it centers around the idea that their children’s lives haven’t quite turned out like they hoped or dreamed. No one hopes that their child will one day get divorced or find themselves in an abusive relationship or marry an alcoholic. No one dreams that their child will drop out of high school or get addicted to drugs or runaway from home. No one who comes to church every Sunday wants to see their child lose their faith or decide that church just isn’t worth it or that coming to church is pointless. When you think about the future, these are just not the plans that parents have for their children. Yet these things are often the reality, and more and more, Christian parents and grandparents are discovering that their children and grandchildren are becoming disillusioned with the church. We see them sleeping in on Sundays with not even a twinge of guilt. We see them accusing us of being hypocrites, of abusing our power, and of doing nothing but fighting…and too often they’re right. As a pastor, I have people come to me all the time asking to get married in our church – not because the community or their faith has any meaning for them, but simply because it’s a nice building. People come to me wanting to get their child baptized, not because they’re going to take seriously those baptismal promises of raising the child in the faith and bringing them to church, but because grandma or grandpa said they should get the baby done. Its almost as if the church doesn’t matter to them – to the children and grandchildren and we raised and love so much. And if the church doesn’t matter to them, does it matter at all? And then there’s the girl I met a couple weeks ago. I have no idea what her name is and I probably never will. I was at Baue funeral home for the visitation of Sam Craig. He was 21 years old and he was killed in car accident about 3 weeks ago. I was asked to do the funeral because Sam & his family didn’t have church home, but once upon a time they had attended a Lutheran church. So there I was at the visitation and since I didn’t know anyone there, I was just kind of standing there, off to the side, wearing my collar. Then a young girl, couldn’t have been more than 17 or 18 came and stood next to me. With a shaky voice and tears in her eyes, she asked me, “Do you think Sam is in heaven?” She had never been to church before, but that day, the church mattered to her. When she had no where else to turn, when her heart was broken, when she was lost in her grief and had questions about what happens when you die – the church suddenly mattered. You see, the church mattered that day because we have something the world desperately needs. We, as the church, have been given the message of Jesus Christ – and that message is filled with promise, forgiveness, love, and ultimately, hope. And as God gives us that message, he has all kinds of hopes and dreams for us and his message – just like parents with their children. In Jeremiah, God says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Just as a father or mother gazes at their child and imagines the future, God does the same thing with the church. And one of the clearest places of his vision for the future is found in Isaiah 2. [AT LIFT – have people draw this & discuss it.] God dreams of the day when the house of the Lord will be the most important place on earth. People from all over the world will stream to it. And for those that answer the call, there they will learn the ways of God, walk in his paths, and be transformed by what happens to them there. And then, they will be sent back into the world, carrying the word of the Lord, the message of Jesus Christ, out there with them. And this message will be so powerful and wonderful that it will change everything. The world will know peace and healing and wholeness – people will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. And the people of the world will shout in response: Come! Let us walk in the light of the Lord! This is God’s dream for us. This is God’s dream for the church. This is God’s dream for the world. Kelly Fryer draws God’s dream like this: The church draws people in…and transforms them…and then sends them out so that through them God can change the world. You see, when Jesus came into the world, something happened that had never happened before – the Kingdom of Heaven came near! All of a sudden, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lost were found, and the dead were brought to life again. It was incredible and perhaps the most incredible thing of all was that Jesus said to his disciples, “I choose you. No matter your past, your sin, your weakness, your brokenness. I choose you to be my messengers in the world.” And we, in the church, 2000 years later, are still part of this mission. We get to carry the message of Jesus with us wherever we go. We get to bring light into the dark places of the world. We get to remind people of the promises of eternal life. We get to feed the hungry people in Haiti. We get to do the right thing at school. We get to give that homeless guy five bucks and not ask any questions. We get to sit with someone in the hospital and pray. I get to tell that young girl that, “Yes, I believe Sam is in heaven because Jesus died for Sam, just like he died for me.” Jesus chose us, and we get to be part of God’s dream for the world and that, my friends, is an incredible opportunity. But if we are to do this, there is one major shift in thinking that we need to get past. We need to stop thinking of the church like a noun – as a stationary place with walls and a roof and bills to be paid. If we are to be part of God’s hopes and dreams as the church, we must begin seeing the church more like a verb. The church is action. The church is transformation. The church is living God’s mission out there in the world. Our God has never been a stationary God and his church was never intended to be stationary church. Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper was that we would be sent into the world, and into the world we must go. That is God’s hope for us and this matters! So, each of you has a sheet of paper in your bulletin, so go ahead and pull that out. It says “Daring to Dream It” at the top. At the top left, please write “For Me:” and then about half way down, write “For Hope:”. I’d like for you to take a few minutes and think about what God may be dreaming for you to do in your life and for us to do as a faith community? What, specifically, do you see as God’s dreams for you and for Hope Lutheran Church? What do you think are some of God’s dreams? The more specific, the better… Now, please turn to your neighbor and discuss these dreams for a few moments. Now, please take your piece of paper and tear off the bottom half – the half where you wrote about God’s dreams for Hope. I’d like for you to place that in the offering plate this morning. It will be interesting to see what dreams that God might have for this congregation. You know, following God’s hopes and dreams is what will make a difference in the world. And perhaps therein lies the problem with those children and grandchildren who have given up on the church. I’m part of a generation that doesn’t see a whole lot of need for church and I also have my own gripes with the church. I see churches aging and losing members and dying, and as I talk with leaders of these churches, they sometimes ask me the question, I guess since I’m young and of the generation they’re hoping to reach, they ask, “How can we reach young people like you?” And my question back to them is always, “Well, what difference are you making in the world?” I think people in my generation, and increasingly people in the younger generations, want to be part of something that makes a difference. And if the church isn’t doing that, if it’s not making a difference in their life or in the world, they’ll find someplace else that is. The good news is that God is bigger than the church and can reach them even when they’re not part of the church. But…but God’s ultimate dream is for us to be a part of it…for us in the church to be the ones carrying that message out there. God wants to bless the world and he wants to do it through us. Are you ready for that? Amen.
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