26 June 2011

“Meetings, reports, budgets … and welcoming”
Matthew 10:40-42
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – year A
26 June 2011


Hooray! It’s annual meeting day! We’ve made it through another year – together.
That news – in and of itself – is cause for rejoicing, for those of you who, ten years ago, were called anything but prophetic – as this congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in the Northwest Washington Synod, appeared to be fading fast, going away, joining the ranks of St. James and Riverton Heights and even Lord of Life, Duvall this weekend … congregations of our synod which have and are closing their doors for good … unlike Bethlehem and Renton Lutheran, where re-vision has led and is leading to something new, the “voice of reason” here was “let’s close the doors and sell the property.”
And so – as one might expect, you who said “no, we’ll not close” received “a prophet’s reward” of sorts from some, as friends and neighbors scoffed at your foolishness and departed for other area congregations. But you stayed and re-visioned and re-worked this place … chucking the old models of how you had done church in the past, using our round structure as a way of guiding us forward into mission and service and, yes, growth – spiritual as well as numerical.
So ten years later here we are … half of you, keepers of that part of Nativity’s story … the other half of us, having come after that prophetic decision … we who were, are welcomed in Jesus’ named, taken into the life and mission and service of this congregation of the body of Christ.
And so today … fully ten years after that momentous annual meeting of June 24, 2001 in which Nativity made the prophetic decision to step forward in faith … today, we come together this afternoon to celebrate a decade of rebirth and growth … and also … to take a look ahead .
Now the business of an annual meeting of a congregation doesn’t usually look, or sound, that exciting. Meetings, reports and budgets … to some, even many … that’s a simply dreadful way to spend an hour, hour and a half, on a nice sunny June afternoon.
So I invite you … instead of seeing the annual meeting as “something we have to suffer through every year” … instead, let’s look at it through the lens of our Gospel reading this morning, the text given us today to think on and ponder, and take into our lives for this week. This week, which includes our annual meeting.
What might God be trying to say to us through Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel?

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward;
And whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;
And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

Let’s consider the annual report itself. Inside are notes and minutes, budget reports and write-ups of the meetings and ministries which have been part of Nativity’s life over the past twelve months.
Much has happened. Much has been accomplished.
But remember our text. Read through that lens. Consider, and ponder.
Were we inviting and welcoming to the stranger … the outsider … the visitors and neighbors around us, in and through what we’ve done?
When Nativity re-visioned church ten years ago, you made a distinctive choice … using our round structural shape as a model for what everything around here was to be about … with Christ at our center, as we receive him in the proclamation of Word and Sacrament … the goal of our leaders was to reach out, from that center, to the outside … so that as many as possible could, can be touched by the welcoming, centering, calming, healing presence of Jesus Christ … through us … reaching out to those outside the “inner circle” … working, praying, serving to “bring those on the outside in” … not because “we need more young families and children,” not because “we’re scared that our church is going to close,” no … we do not reach out to save the institution of the congregation.
We reach out because Christ has saved and is saving us … and this is such a joyous, life giving word that we cannot help but share it with others.
And so as we read these reports and budgets and think back on the year just past, we are called to consider … have we welcomed? Which means, not just staying here within our comfortable walls and waiting for, expecting others to “show up,” no, it means actively taking that cup of cold water out, and giving it away, for the sake of Jesus, and for their sake.
Have we been prophetic in our ministries? Have we used the blessings God has so richly given to us as a congregation to boldly serve, to reach out and bring the word of forgiveness and hope, grace and peace and radical welcome to those sitting in the midst of pain, despair, suffering and hopelessness? If not, why not?
When we reach out, we bring the true “prophet’s reward,” the “reward of the righteous” to those who need to receive it … we bring Jesus, Jesus’ word, Jesus’ presence, in our presence.
Why in Jesus’ name would we deprive a brother or sister in Christ of that, Jesus’ blessing to them, coming through our voices, our hearts, our hands?
And what of the future? The one “looking ahead” piece of our annual report today is our proposed budget for 2011-12. Granted, a budget is merely a blue print for ministry and mission for the next year … much work has to take place between the figures on the page and the actual work and service done … but still, it is a place to start for the year ahead.
My pastoral colleague in Maryland always says that “budgets are moral documents.”
What is the morality that our church budget is proclaiming for the next year?
Does it strike that careful balance between serving ourselves … maintaining our facilities and paying our staff a just wage … and, on the other hand, maintaining, increasing the priority of reaching out, and serving others – especially those who God calls us to look out for with particular care … those without others to care for them, those who haven’t heard about God’s love in Jesus Christ, those going through particular hardship caused by disaster, famine or flood?
Our teams and council have prepared and recommended a path for our future. But it is just that … a path … and a path is pointless unless people use it to get somewhere. That somewhere starts with each and all of us prayerfully considering our place in and on that path, in the mission and ministry of this place called Nativity.

Annual meetings are usually looked at as one of those necessary things we don’t at all like, but need to be about … like a root canal or a colonoscopy … and so we usually try to get through them as rapidly as possible. But I would hope and pray that today, we enter our annual meeting with the words of our Gospel reading in our hearts and on our tongues …
… and, even as we give thanks for the past ten years of visioning, working, growing this place back into a vital place of Word, worship and work for God’s people … we would also prayerfully, carefully ponder and consider what we are still being called into being about here, people of Nativity, people of place of new birth and new life, people being called into God’s future, together, in Jesus’ name, for the sake of our friends and family, our parish neighborhood, our community and state, our nation and world, and yes, ourselves too.

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward;
And whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;
And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.