John 10:22-30
At that time the Festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking through the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and asked him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I have told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe me because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will not perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my father has given me is above all else and no one can snatch it out of the father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
Maybe you remember … maybe you haven’t heard, yet … there’s a good chance you don’t care all that much … but I said last week I wanted these handful of Sundays on “the other side of Easter” to be as practical as they are holy in terms of letting everyone know what we’re up to around here as far as the big picture of our ministry goes at Cross of Grace.
Our Council President, Gayle Beebe, has been keeping you in the loop once a month after each council meeting, we’ll have our “Q and A Sessions” today and next week, to talk more about some of the details before our Annual Meeting on the 22nd, and hopefully you’ve read about some of it all in the newsletter, too.
But we’ve learned over the years that you can’t say the important things too often around here – everyone is never paying attention all at the same time – and that the most convenient time… to get most peoples’… most undivided attention, is during the 15 minutes or so of sermon time during Sunday morning worship so … I hope you’re listening … I hope you’re paying attention … I hope you hear me when I say … we have paid off the mortgage on our building and are effectively debt-free as of this past Wednesday.
Now, we’ve warned you that this was coming. We’ve hinted that it was getting close. We’ve been working very deliberately toward this goal for the last few years and it feels amazing to have made it happen. But what now? What’s next? Where do we go from here?
Before we go there, I’d like to connect all of this to today’s Gospel. I didn’t go fishing for my own Gospel reading today, because it seems meaningful to me that the assigned reading has us meet up with Jesus, in the temple, during the festival of its dedication – that holiday when faithful Jews gathered at the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate its rebuilding, to celebrate their national identity, and to commit to their own re-dedication to God as children of God. There’s a lot for us to wonder about and learn from here.
First of all, we know that the whole idea of a permanent temple in a place they could call home – like Jerusalem was and is for Jewish people – was a powerful sign of God’s presence and God’s provision for the people of Jesus’ day. Before this, back in the days of their Exodus and wilderness wandering, God’s temple was mobile, remember, on the move with the Israelites wherever they went as they made their way (living, moving, breathing, fighting, dying, surviving) on their way to the Promised Land.
So, for so many generations, God’s presence was evident to God’s people by way of God’s mobility – and willingness to walk with, accompany, travel alongside and set up camp in the form of a tabernacle with the people through the wilderness wherever they landed. So when Jesus shows up, strolling through that permanent, planted, stationary synagogue of synagogues, the symbolism is powerful and packed with meaning for me.
Yes, the temple is home base and a beautiful place to gather, to celebrate, to worship, to recall the mighty acts and kept promises of God. And, as Jesus reminds his disciples, “the Father and I are one.” “God and I are one and the same. And here I am, walking and talking and living and moving and marveling at these here columns in Solomon’s Portico.” And it seems to me, Jesus is letting them know that things have changed, something is different now, things are different with Jesus in the mix – God was on the move again.
On the other side of Easter, as we gather to celebrate and give thanks for all that this place means for us – and that it is paid for! – I want us to remember and give thanks for and celebrate most that God is on the move, again; God is on the move, still, really; and that we’re being invited to keep up and to keep moving, too.
And thanks to some prayerful, faithful planning on the part of our Council and Stewardship Team, this is how we’re proposing we’ll do that.
What has always and only been known as our “Building Fund” – what we’ve always and only used for the sake of building buildings and paying off mortgages – is being transformed into a “Building and Outreach Fund” going forward. We will still make separate commitments/pledges to this fund in the fall of each year. It will still help us plan for building expansion and facility improvement projects, BUT going forward, 50% of it all will be used for mission and outreach efforts beyond our own walls. Until now, because we have been so aggressive about paying down our mortgage, only 10% of Building Fund offerings were leaving our coffers. (10% isn’t nothing and has made a huge difference for our friends in Haiti and for Roots of Life up in Noblesville. But 50% will do even more.)
Here’s what it will look like:
50% of our Building and Outreach Fund will still do work for us, right here at Cross of Grace.
25% will help us save and prepare for our next building expansion project – whether that’s the pavilion we’re hoping to get a grant for or the addition of square feet to our sanctuary by moving this western wall ‘that way’ a few hundred feet.
The other 25% will be an emergency fund – or repair and improvement fund – for projects that come up along the way with any facility, over time. Think new roof, black-topping the parking lot, painting the exterior, replacing HVAC units, stuff like that.
And, again, 50% of it all will be on the move, doing God’s work out there in the world, which is what we’re here for in the first place. And you can see, we’re keeping Zanmi Fondwa and Roots of Life in the mix, but bumping our commitment to them from 5% to 10% each. We’re also going to put 5% of these Building and Outreach offerings into our own Mission Endowment Fund, to help grow that principal, steadily over time, and to keep that long-term investment and opportunity in front of us, too. And we will still have another 25% of these Building and Outreach offerings to give away each year. We will accept applications, we’ll propose grants, and we’ll invite ideas and interest from the community and have a team of Cross of Gracers make those decisions each year as the money is available.
So, if Dawn Becker’s math is correct (and Dawn Becker’s math is always correct), this is what we could accomplish for ourselves and for the kingdom, in just the next year, with Building and Outreach Fund commitments like those we made and continue to honor just this year.
The short of the long is – even if we don’t grow (which we will) and even if we don’t stretch (which we always have) and even if we just keep doing what we’ve been doing – we’ll be able to take care of plenty of things around here AND be able to give away something like $77,000 as a way of sharing grace with the world around us.
Someone suggested not long ago – with equal measures of cynicism and concern, I believe – that once we paid off the mortgage, people weren’t going to feel the need to give as generously as they always have in the past. I hope this kind of news changes that, if it were ever going to be true for any of us.
See, we’ve called this year of our Building Fund giving “Grace On Fire,” with exactly this kind of thing in mind … the idea that our generosity and giving would continue to grow and expand and do God’s work right here among us and in ever-increasing and always faithful ways out there in the world. On the other side of Easter, God is calling us to be on the move with Jesus … and we are … and I hope you’ll join us … and God only knows where we’re headed next.
Amen
