(A meditation preached by the Rev. Dr. David R. Bushnell on May 11, 2008 before the congregation of Hamilton Park United Church of Christ, Lancaster, PA.)

Power of the Journey

(Acts 2:1-21)

Our granddaughter celebrated her second birthday in April. I was the only immediate family member unable to be there (it was the same day as our mission auction). Not to worry, I really don't think that Alyson is going to hold it against me. It takes some time, doesn't it, for young children to identify special days of the year and the special gifts they will bring. In the first few years of life...birthdays and days like Christmas, are surprise parties in that children don't really know what's coming even if people are talking about it. Do you know what I mean?

Well, thinking about this not knowing what's really happening on your birthday, has me wondering about the Pentecost experience this morning. This is the day that we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. It was a day that we call the birthday of the church. We read in Acts 2, that all the disciples were together in one place. Before they knew it, there was a rush of wind and party favors in the form of tongues of flames were hovering about them. Then, I think it is accurate to say... gifts began to be opened up...gifts that helped the disciples connect with others in profound ways. Peter, according to today's lesson, found a new voice for preaching and he took to the streets with the gospel message. This team of believers who had been so dispirited by Jesus death and their own fears, this team who had experienced the resurrected Jesus but were unsure of what his new life would mean...this team was now suddenly energized and ready to win not just at home but on the road....to win new disciples for Jesus. What made it all happen? The gift of the Holy Spirit is what made it all happen.

I'm wondering this morning if this Pentecost celebration of the church's birthday is more like the birthday celebration of a small child. I don't want to suggest that we don't know what's going on. That would be an insult to our intelligence. We have heard the story and we can understand what the gift of the Holy Spirit meant to the early church. But what I'm wondering is when it comes to opening the gifts of the Holy Spirit...does it involve only remembering their story or do we anticipate experiencing the Spirit in our own lives.

This is not the time to give a crash course on the Holy Spirit. It is however a time to say that we have been promised gifts on this birthday. I want to ask you today to be open to the Spirit's gifts.

Just what would that look like?

The truth is if we are going to go anywhere in our Christian life we need the Holy Spirit. This is the Advocate that Jesus promised would be there for us. It's not a Power of Attorney (POA)that we need to be a Christian, as if someone would act in our place...BUT we do need a Power of the Journey (POJ). That's what the Holy Spirit is all about.

There are three words that I want you to carry home today. Three words that I want you to take with you in the next few weeks. The three words are invite, inspire, intend.

Have you ever invited the Holy Spirit to be part of your life? I'm not talking about a once and done kind of thing...I mean a Power of the Journey. I don't know about you but the times in my life for inviting the Spirit's presence are times when I'm facing something that's really bigger than I can handle alone. I'm not just talking about big problems...that qualifies...but I'm also talking about big ideas and big dreams...the kind of things that you might step back from because you are afraid they might fail. People so often think that religious faith is mostly a matter of shoring up our weaknesses but the truth is that people can be just as fearful about their strengths as they can be about their weaknesses. Plans or no plans, I want you to invite the Holy Spirit into your ordinary day just to see the difference the Power of the Journey can make.

I once heard Tony Campolo talk about his own devotional time in the morning. If you've ever been in his presence for any period of time you are amazed with the energy he has. I heard him describe how he takes time to breathe in the Spirit...to try to be filled with the Spirit each morning. What would it be like for you to take deep breaths in the morning and invite the Spirit to be with you, in and through you.

Don't be surprised if you are inspired in new ways, if you see things in new ways. The Holy Spirit does that to you. It may be true that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. You do have to give yourself fully to things. But here's the twist...a little bit of inspiration can be a powerful thing indeed and a little can go a long way. C.S.Lewis once said this about inspiration.

"It came. I doubt if we shall ever know more of the process called ?inspiration' than those two monosyllables tell us." (C.S.Lewis, Selected Literary Essays, "The Vision of John Bunyan, page 147) It came! And perhaps we can also say...it came and went. Isn't it true that inspiration is the gift of the moment made possible in any moment but certainly not every moment. A person can be spoiled and want too much inspiration. Counting such spiritual moments can be a new form of materialism...a spiritual materialism. I would think that one inspired moment in a day would be plenty wonderful and could lead a person to some very important decisions about the day.

Finally the Holy Spirit attends to us so that what we intend can be accomplished. This is the area of the Spirit's activity that is most accommodating. Our Power of the Journey equips us with the gifts to get the job done...to accomplish what needs accomplished. Have you ever marveled at some of the unique tools that some craftsmen/women have to do their work? Surely you know that God provides us with important tools for our tasks of ministry or for our being the church in the world today. The Apostle Paul calls these tools spiritual gifts...he writes about 18 of them listing them in various places throughout his letters. When the Spirit's gifts are more like ends in themselves than means to an end...Paul calls them fruits of the Spirit. In Galations 5 he writes.... "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

The Power of the Journey.....I hope you will take some time in the days ahead to open up the Spirit gift that is ours to claim. With any birthday, the time comes to open up the gift...the true gift of the day. Author Tim Downs writes this about the Holy Spirit. "Watches, cars and Christians can all look chromed and shiny. But watches don't tick, cars don't go and Christians don't make a difference without insides. For a Christian, that's the Holy Spirit. (www.pietyhilldesign.com/gcq/quotepages/holy spirit.html)

So....let me end with a greeting from our POJ. Happy Birthday church! Amen.

***

(A sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. David R. Bushnell on May 4, 2008 before the congregation of Hamilton Park United Church of Christ, Lancaster, PA.)

Who Owns the Church

(Acts 1:6-14)

A young boy came up to me not long after I began my ministry here at Hamilton Park Church. "Pastor Dave", he asked, "do you own this place?" I assured him that I didn't and I probably said something like...we all own it together or maybe even that God owns it. It was an interesting question then, and it still is today. "Who owns the church?" How would you answer it?

If you were to review the policies of our congregation's Endowment Fund, you would read at the very end a statement like this.... "If Hamilton Park United Church of Christ, Lancaster, PA ceases to exist the funds shall be transferred to the Penn Central Conference of the United Church of Christ." Of course another statement follows.... "This document can be amended at any duly called meeting of the congregation by a majority vote."

If you were to look at the charter of our congregation or the by-laws...you find some interesting things. When the congregation was chartered in 1949 the church was chartered as Hamilton Park United Church of Christ. Those of you that may not know denominational history too well...may not know that the UCC was officially formed in 1957. There was one other church chartered back then before Hamilton Park Church...but officially we were the second church in the country to be named a United Church of Christ congregation. Of course, we didn't start using the name until the denomination was officially born.

In no place, however, in our charter or by-laws does it say "Who owns the church?" Or even who should get the church property and other assets if the church went out of business. Our denomination's characteristic of local autonomy for the congregation implies that the members of the church would have the authority to decide guided one would hope by congregational leaders and the Holy Spirit..but I can hardly believe people would say.... "Hey, we own this place let's decide whether we want to keep being the church or not....we could sell the place and divide the profits." I don't think the IRS would think that was a very good idea especially with our status as a non-profit organization.

Dan Hotchkiss, a senior consultant with the Alban Institute has some ideas about "Who Owns a Congregation?" He gets at an answer by asking church leaders how they see their job. I'm talking elected lay leadership now even more so that the clergy. Some leaders will say "we represent the members of the congregation?" Not a bad answer for starters but the idea of giving people what they want or think they want can end up to be pretty self-serving.

Another answer church leaders sometimes give is "We are ministers alongside of the pastors." That shifts the leadership task away from the self interests of the membership to a calling of God and Jesus Christ. So...when we ordain and install leaders as is our practice, we as members of the church promise our prayers and support to the leaders. Listen to the exact words we use at those times. " We gather in celebration of the joy that is ours to be partners with you in the service of Jesus Christ. We promise to love you, honor your leadership, and assist you that together we may be a faithful church of Jesus Christ."

So who owns the church? "Jesus? God? Perhaps, but a more useful answer, I believe, is ?the owner of a congregation is its mission.' A congregation exists to discern the piece of God's will that constitutes this congregation's mission, to articulate the mission well, and to ensure that what the congregation does will realize the mission." (Hotchkiss, The Alban Institute, 2008-04-21 Who Owns a Congregation?)

So what is our congregation's mission? There's no better place to turn for an answer that today's reading from the book of Acts. It was such an important time for the early church. Jesus was going away, lifted up, so our lesson reads, in what the church has come to call Christ's ascension. This departure of Jesus quite naturally raised the question of when would Jesus return. Should the disciples sit around until Jesus came back to restore the kingdom of God to it's fullest expression. They even asked Jesus about the timing. And Jesus gave them a promise and a charter for their life together. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

You will be my witnesses...how's that for a mission statement. Another thing that I like about today's lesson is that it also has a list of the church's charter members...not an exhaustive list however since Mary is the only woman named...but there are other women not named...we know that, the lesson says as much. The thing that makes this passage so powerful to me is that it gives any church a similar charter while at the same time suggesting that the mission will depend upon the particular names that are assembled in any place and time.

What is our congregation's mission? It is sometimes the case that people assume that mission of a church is what we do for others. It's how we organize to serve community meals, or send out work camps to Mississippi. It's how we support and honor various community agencies who are making a difference in people's lives....like Bridge of Hope, whom we honor today. When you look at our annual budget, you see a list of mission accounts that total $41,000 and when you add to that the various grants given through our Endowment Fund and other special fund raisers like the Mission Auction or the CROP Walk...it's well over $50,000 a year designated for mission causes. That certainly is a witness...but is it our only witness.

It would be easy for me to say that everything we do in and through Hamilton Park Church is our mission AND while I believe it...that may be the easy way out. We need to examine what we do through the lense of "being witnesses" to really grab hold of this larger sense of congregational mission. I really love the way Dan Hotchkiss describes it....listen closely to this.... Our task "is to discern our mission, the small piece of God's intention that belongs to us. Or to put it differently, our job is to find the mission we belong to, the real owner for whose benefit we hold and deploy the congregations's resources."

Do you know how exciting it is to be the church when everyone, young and old, claim or are claimed by ?the small piece of God's intention that belongs to us."

This morning we are honoring Bridge of Hope...shortly we will show you a brief video clip of what it is that Bridge of Hope does for homeless mothers and their children and how they get congregations like our own involved. We hope that our congregation may become a mentoring group for a family in need. This organization, as I know you will see...is doing the small piece of God's intention that belongs to them. One of their guiding principles is something that Mother Teresa once said and lived, out of her own experience. "I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I love only one person at a time. I feed only one person at a time...Just begin....one...one...one."

So who owns the church? It is such a different kind of question. It's a different kind of question than the question that seems so dominant in our culture today...a question like, what do we own?

No matter what we do, in worship, in study and prayer, in fellowship, in planning, in service to others, in caring for each other....may we always be asking in all those different ways of being the church...what is the small piece of God's intention for my life and for our life together. That piece of God's intention for us is what owns us today. Amen.

*****

(A sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. David R. Bushnell on April 20, 2008 before the congregation of Hamilton Park United Church of Christ, Lancaster, PA.)

A Place for You

(John 11:1-14)

André Malraux writes this in his book, Anti-Memoirs, "One day it will be realized that men (people) are distinguishable from one another as much by the forms their memories take as by their characters." Henri Nouwen, "The Living Reminder, page 18) I have decided that today might be a day of memories for me and I hope for you as well.

Our gospel lesson is a familiar one. It is often shared at funeral services, as a word of comfort and hope. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also." Is there any doubt that people hear those words and have heaven in mind.

This passage of scripture is part of what has been called the farewell discourses of Jesus. It might seem like an unusual time of the church year to be reading the lesson.. after Easter I mean? Why not before his death? Why not sometime in Holy Week since that appears to be the time when Jesus shared these words, according to John's gospel?

Here's what I think. I think this is a very good time to hear the promise that Jesus is out ahead of us preparing a place for us. I think it is a very good time not only because there are times when we have heaven on our mind BUT also because there are times when we wonder how on earth we could ever live without the ongoing presence of God, preparing the way. I need to ask you, each and every one of you....is there anything that you are facing today...any joy or any sorrow...anything...that would not welcome the blessed assurance that Jesus is out ahead of you preparing the way, preparing your way, preparing our way.

We are bringing children to be baptized this morning. Can you imagine the preparation that these parents made to welcome this gift of a new life. Maybe it involved changing the spare bedroom into a nursery and putting a baby crib together. Maybe it involved getting a car seat so they could bring the baby home from the hospital. Maybe friends helped supply the new parents by having a baby shower. Oh..let's not forget picking out names. I bet there are a few parents who might have sung to the baby even before he or she was born. What I'm saying is we know what it's like to say.... "I go to prepare a place for you." It's something that people do for the people they love or will love.

Now I have news for any young parents today. I know how much you want to prepare the way for your children, I know because I've been at that place. But try as we may...we can't be out ahead of our children every step of the way. We can't protect them in a bubble of love...we can't keep them from making mistakes...we can't guarantee that they won't be hurt or that they won't hurt someone else. Besides, the time inevitably comes when a child doesn't want his parents "preparing the way"....the time comes for people to grow up and strike out on their own.

The time comes when a parent has to say.... "God, she's in your hands now." And God says "Don't worry I go to prepare a place for her."

One of the most memorable trips of my life was the three day journey with our daughter Sarah, as we traveled across the country to California so she could begin work on her master's degree. You wouldn't believe what we got in her little Honda...even took apart a desk so it would pack. The first thing we did when we go to Davis, CA was go buy a bed. Had God been preparing a place for her? She was going to be renting a house with three other students, two guys and one gal.....They each had a bedroom upstairs and shared the downstairs rooms in common. "Don't worry Mr. Bushnell, we'll take care of her!" A few years later those two guys were right here in this sanctuary, one reading scripture at her wedding...the other, a groomsman.

I go to prepare a place for you. When our children were young, in fact, Nathan had just finished the third grade having had Joanne Blankenstein as his teacher. We went south to join a Habitat for Humanity walk that had started in Americus, GA and would end in Kansas City, MO. We were going to join the walk for 100 miles and have the privilege of walking alongside Habitat's founder, Millard Fuller. It was a remarkable experience. There was an advance team always a day or so ahead of us...preparing the way. They made sure we had meals to eat, places to rest with portable restrooms....and of course, places to sleep. Members of the advance team made sure that our vehicles were shuttled daily to our new destination. We'd gotten pledges for our part of the walk...pledges that would help pay for the very first Habitat House in York County. We called it our $10,000 vacation but in fact we raised over $13,000.

I just learned last week that York Habitat has built 88 homes since we first went on that walk years ago to help fund the first house. In fact, the property taxes that Habitat families have paid last year totaled more than $200,000. That's a lot of families learning some practical theology that God is out ahead preparing a place for them.

About a year before I came to serve here, I was President of York Habitat. We had a building blitz that year with the Timber Framers Association. There were over 1,000 people involved in the four days that it took us to build two Timber Frame homes in Hanover. That's a lot of people...but I still remember the Sunday morning...early morning around 6 a.m. when I was the only one left on the building sites. Here were thousands of dollars of tools and equipment scattered in various places and I was alone.....in two hours I was due back in York to lead worship. A car drove up, was parked, and a man got out and approached me. Was there anything he could do? "As a matter of fact", I said, "could you stay here for a couple hours until the construction supervisor returns...he just went home for a few hours of sleep." "I can do that", he said, "and then he stuck out his hand and said... "My name's Bud." You know...he was like answered prayer. It was as if God had been preparing the whole thing all along and was laughing saying.... "Dave, this Bud's for you!" I go to prepare a place for you.

There's a work camp crew in Mississippi by now (most of them). Do you think God is out ahead of them, preparing the way? We have too many work camp stories to tell. The year we went to Grand Forks, ND after the flooding there, we had driven 36 hours straight. There were twenty of us from two congregations. We were pulling a u-haul trailer with tools. When we got to the United Way office for work assignments, we were told that there were some painting jobs...PAINTING JOBS....we came all that distance with all the tools and the skills to use them and they wanted us to PAINT. I asked...do you mind if we drive around ourselves and find some places that might need us. They suggested one neighborhood 15 miles from the river that was especially hard hit. And so we went there...we found a young man working on his house, working all alone. We asked him if he needed a twenty man team to help him. This young man pointed to the house next door and a FEMA trailer beside it. "I could use the help sure...but the woman that lives next door REALLY needs it." I go to prepare a place for you. When we left after five days of working on her house...she was confident that she would be able to move back into her home by September.

I go to prepare a place for you. By the way, two members of our work camp team have had a similar experience in the last few months...they have lost their jobs. And yet they are in MS today with the confidence that God is out ahead of them...preparing the way. It takes a special kind of courage to be giving of your time and energy to others when you aren't exactly sure what your own future will be.

One of the hardest times of my life was in the last months of my father's life. It was around Thanksgiving Day in 1994 that my father was hospitalized and was to be released..not to home but to a nursing home. I was elected to share the news with my father. I had arranged for him to go to a place that had a good reputation, in fact I knew the owners..they happened to be members of a UCC church. You have to know something about my dad to fully appreciate this story about him. This is a man who would sing hymns in his very last days.... "His Eye is on the Sparrow and I know he's watching me." This is a man who would make me promise in those last days that I would take care of my mother. "Dad", I said to him one day back then, "you can't be cared for at home anymore, you need to go to a nursing home." His only remark was this.... "just don't forget where I am!" I go to prepare a place for you.

Last year about this time was one of the hardest times of my pastoral ministry...and I'm not supposed to speak for another but I think Pastor Cathy would say the same. It was just after our Maundy Thursday service that we got news of Eli's chocking accident and we all rushed to the hospital. Those three weeks after the accident until his death were filled with enough tears and enough acts of love to last a lifetime. I remember saying to my wife, Anne, that I would change places with Eli in a heartbeat and she said "You'd have to get in line!"

The "In Depth" group has been having discussion these days about medical ethics. Part of those discussions have been looking at very difficult situations... situations when people have had to make hard choices. One of the guiding principles for Christians is that our lives are part of a bigger story..God's story...and with that is the hope and the promise that our life is a gift from God and God will be there for us in our living and in our dying. As one of your pastors, I want to say that I hope no one will ever have to experience the loss of a child...and yet I know it happens all to often. But I can say in full confidence that if anyone ever has to walk that lonesome valley, I would hope and pray that they would have the courage and faith of Peter and Deb and Noah...the ability to know when to hold on and when to let go. That faith is grounded in the trust that God is preparing a place for us.

I go to prepare a place for you. Last fall as I was selecting songs for the coming year, I asked Deb if it would be ok with her if we sang "One of These Days" as a tribute to Eli. I scheduled it for this Sunday, the Sunday before the anniversary of his death. This past Monday I asked the Fraileys if we could sing "I'll fly Away" as a closing hymn.

You may remember this story, some of you.....on the night they were going to take Eli off life supports, Peter came back to the waiting room. He suggested that if we wanted to say our goodbyes we needed to do it. I went back to the pediatric intensive care unit with a very heavy heart. As I got close to Eli's room, I heard music...that wasn't so strange since Eli had been surrounded with music for three weeks....but this music was rocking. As I opened the door, I found Deb with two of the nurses singing along and even dancing in a way to the music "I'll Fly Away". I will forever cherish that moment...I'll cherish it because it was a moment of deep and abiding faith. Those three knew where Eli was going...they knew it was time to let go and they knew the one that was out ahead preparing a place for him.

"One of these days I'll finally be in a place where there's no more need, No more pain and no more grief, no more foolish disbelief. And all the joy there will be when at last we see, one of these days.

One of these days I'm gonna see the hand that took the nails for me. One of these days I'm gonna hold the key to the mansion built for me.One of these days I'm gonna walk the streets of gold that were paved for me.

One of these days I'm gonna see my Savior face to face....One of these days. One of these days."

( One of These Days, word and music by Jeromy Deibler)

Amen.