The Other Side of Easter: Grace Upon Grace

John 13:31-35

When [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once.

“Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me and, as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, ‘where I am going you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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If you’ve been around and paying attention, you know we’ve been talking about what it would/could/should/might look like to live on the other side of Easter whenever we fully embrace and engage the good of news that brings us here, still, so many days after the Big Day of Easter’s resurrection celebration. Again, this is the cornerstone of our faith, the joy of which is meant to linger … to last … to perpetually motivate and inspire and move us to live differently because God has done a new thing with Easter’s resurrection to new life.

Last week, we shared the good news about having paid off our mortgage and about what that will mean for our capacity to give differently to ministries outside of ourselves, through what we’re now calling our “Building and Outreach Fund.” For those of you who weren’t here, the short of the long is that, because we no longer have a mortgage to pay, we’ll be able to transform those offerings into mission and outreach efforts to do God’s work out there in the world.

Well, because next week is our annual congregational meeting and because we’ll be making our financial commitments to the General Fund along with our offerings of Time and Talent, I want to talk about the other side of the same coin when it comes to our financial stewardship around here – the money we give and use for our operational budget at Cross of Grace.

Don’t start snoring yet. And, like I said the first week of this sermon series, if you’re a guest, or new around here, please don’t tune out or log off or leave, just yet, either. I realize this may feel very personal and contextual and unique to our particular ministry at Cross of Grace – like I’m “talking shop” in a way that may not concern you, just yet, if ever. But I believe that if what we’re up to in this little corner of God’s Kingdom is faithful in any way, it would/could/should – it might just – speak to all of us about what God is up to in the world around us.

And I want to start by counting our blessings with a sincere sense of gratitude:

I’m grateful for the other side of Easter – and how that feels like we’re also on the other side of the pandemic. I know it still lingers. I know we just reached a milestone of deaths – just in our own country. I know there are still threats of variants and surges and all that that could entail. But I remain grateful for the spirit of patience, understanding, flexibility, willingness to try new things and mostly the love for one another Jesus was talking about in this morning’s Gospel reading that it took to endure the last couple of years around here – all the masks, and social distancing, online worship, and missed ministry opportunities, I mean.

I’m grateful for the Holy Conversations Gayle Beebe and our Council facilitated, giving us the opportunity to share our dreams and desires with one another in honest, open, faithful ways about all of that.

I’m grateful for all we learned along the way, too, about how to do church and worship differently – that we offer online worship, not just on Sunday morning, but for weddings and funerals, too – and I’m grateful that Stephen Jordan helps make that happen so faithfully.

I’m grateful for our midweek “Lenten Lament” worship series that surprised me, honestly, with how deeply meaningful it was for so many of us.

I’m grateful for those “Age-to-Age” interviews between our Grace Quest kids and some of you older Partners in Mission. Those conversations were fun and beautiful and you can still find them on our YouTube page if you haven’t seen them yet.

I’m grateful for the four young women who affirmed their faith here last Sunday – Lilly, Faith, Saydie, and Ginny.

I’m grateful for the eight young people who celebrated their First Communion on Maundy Thursday – Marloe, Nathan, Brogan, Auggie, Jericho, Mathew, Penelope and Elaine.

I’m grateful for the high school seniors, getting ready to graduate, who’ve found a home here – several who’ve been around long enough, now, to have celebrated their baptism, their First Communion, and their Confirmation here, too – Cassie, Abby, Caleb, Maggie, Jackson, Eli, Katie, Ben, Alaina, Grace, Miles, Alyse.

I’m grateful for the 14 Stephen Ministers we commissioned a couple weeks ago and for those who are prayerfully agreeing to engage that ministry with them in the days ahead.

I’m grateful for all the outside groups who call this place home from one week to the next – the softball and baseball teams, the Boy Scout troops, the AA meetings, 4-H groups, the hundreds of voters who were here a couple weeks ago, and more.

I’m grateful for the families who receive food from our pantry month after month – and for the opportunity we give to people in our community to help stock it and serve in that way.

I’m grateful to be part of a denomination that empowers and ordains women and that, as a congregation, we understand the importance of having women preach, teach and lead however and whenever we get the chance.

I’m grateful for a Church Council and a Congregation that compensates their Pastor and staff well and generously, honoring the Biblical notion that “the laborer deserves to be paid.”

I’m grateful to be a Pastor, from a congregation like ours, who gets called to lead discussions on race and diversity and justice and hospitality with leaders and administrators in our schools.

I’m grateful for the conversations I’ve had with people in our neck of the woods lately, surprising them with the good news that they can be LGBTQ – or any other letter of the alphabet or any color of that rainbow – and be loved and welcomed and celebrated by a Pastor and by people in a church like ours.

All of that is to say that all of this is the kind of ministry our General Fund allows us to accomplish at Cross of Grace. Some of what we do can be found in other ways and places out there in the world. But a lot of what we do – and some of the most important stuff we do – and the spirit of grace upon grace upon grace with which we do it – is utterly unique in Hancock County – the wide, welcome I mean; the women in ministry, I mean; the open communion table, I mean.

And all of it is faithful to what we hear over and over and over again, in Scripture. Peter is talking about “grace upon grace” when he’s convincing the others, in that Acts 11 reading we just heard – that there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles – or any of God’s children for that matter. We try really hard to be like Peter, by asking “who are we to hinder the kind of love and grace God is trying to let loose in the world?”

And Jesus is saying the same when he tells the disciples to love one another the way God has already loved them – without limits, without strings, without condition, in spite of their sins, in the face of whatever is to come, for the sake of the whole wide world.

See, I know that talking about our commitments to the General Fund isn’t as sexy or as fun, on its face, as talking about the Building Fund – or even the Building and Outreach Fund, with all of the percentages we’ll give away “here” or the dollar amounts we’ll be able to share “there.” I don’t have charts and graphs to share this week, like I did last Sunday.

And I’m afraid that when there aren’t bricks and mortar to see and feel, or when we can’t attach a dollar amount to the ministry of love shared at a funeral service or to the wide-welcome extended by way of a phone call or counseling session in my office, or to the public witness of being open and affirming and welcoming to all of God’s people, that we forget or just don’t know about the kind of grace that gets shared around here week in and week out. You can’t capture all of that with a pie chart or with an income and expense report.

So please consider all of that in the days ahead – and as you pray about what your General Fund commitment will be next Sunday. And please pray, too, about if and where and how you’re going to fill out that Time and Talent sheet for the coming year. Cleaning the building isn’t sexy, either. But if it makes one guest feel welcome and safe enough to come back – it matters. Working in the nursery is a sacrifice, I get it. But if it takes care of a child and makes room for a parent to worship in peace and quiet for a change – it is a gift of grace. Mowing the lawn… counting the offering… teaching Grace Quest… serving in any way is a chance to have a stake in what we’re up to around here.

It’s all about not hindering what God is up to… It’s all about loving one another the way God has already loved you… It’s about loving our neighbors the way we have been so loved, ourselves… And it’s about sharing grace upon grace upon grace, in the name of Jesus, crucified and risen for you, for me, for the sake of the world that God so loves.

Amen

The Other Side of Easter: Grace On Fire

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.”

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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