Our Renewing View

Isaiah 65: 21-22

Roger Lynn

March 19, 2017

Marking the Completion of Our Three Year “Renew the View” Capital Improvement Campaign

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

In one of his “Still Speaking Daily Devotional” posts Quinn Caldwell reflected on the passage from Isaiah that we just heard read. “Isaiah's words sound nice, but the fact is, if you build to last, somebody else is going to inhabit your house one day.

Take your church building; aren't you living in a house somebody else built? Whether we like it or not, generation follows generation, and each one takes over in the end what the previous ones left behind. What kind of house is the next generation of your church going to find when they move in? Is it well-maintained? Cleaned and loved? Are they going to have to spend forever getting rid of all the old crap you've let accumulate and ripping down the bulletin boards that you've left hanging there with the same stuff on them for the last twenty years?

Or will they discover that somebody figured out how to organize themselves so that the back of the Sanctuary got decluttered regularly and the sills of the stained-glass windows got de-grimed every once in a while? Will they find that you had the discipline to repair broken furniture, to tear down the year-old notices and repaint the hallway once a decade?

Will they move into a house that somebody loved and cared for as if it actually mattered, or will they find a place that looks like it was owned by a hoarder with a cat problem?

Like it or not, somebody else is going to inhabit your house of worship sooner or later. Decide now what you want them to think of you—and God—when they do.”

Today we gather in this space to celebrate a successful three-year effort to care for, beautify, and upgrade this house which we have inherited so that when we pass it on to the next generation we can do so knowing that we loved and cared for it as if it actually mattered. To be sure, a church is not defined solely by its building. God’s presence can be experienced in a hovel, or simply in the middle of a field. Ministry can happen on a street corner or a coffee shop or in your garage. The Lord’s Supper can be shared on a picnic table or the hood of a farm truck. God’s people can meet and share connection and community in someone’s living room or a restaurant. A building is not essential equipment for a church. And yet, it can be such a profound blessing and gift. It allows us to engage in ministry in such a wide variety of ways. Because we have this facility at the corner of Winne and Oakes there are children who have a space to learn and grow and be cared for. There are people who gather every day of the week to share the struggles and the triumphs as they seek to free themselves from the grip of alcohol. People from around the community are able to dig in the dirt and grow gardens. The local Unitarian/Universalist congregation has a place to gather. There is a place for people to experience the stillness of walking the labyrinth. Music and art is experienced. Conversations of substance occur. Songs are sung, and prayers are said, and worship is shared, and we are touched by Sacred Presence. And how we care for the place where all of that happens matters. Beauty matters. Attention to the details matters. Will God abandon us if there’s a coffee stain on the carpet? Of course not. Will our ministry be deemed a failure if there’s a burned out light bulb in the hallway? No. But our values are reflected in what we do with the gifts we have been given. And make no mistake about it – this facility is a gift which we have been given.

I am honored and blessed to be part of this congregation which takes seriously its responsibility to be good stewards of the gift of this facility. Three years ago when you began this project I didn’t even know that Plymouth Congregational Church existed. So I am one of the people who get to live in this house that I did not build. Thank you for your faithful efforts. They have made a difference. Every time I sit in my office and look out through the Fireside Room to the amazing view of the Sleeping Giant spread out before me I am filled with awe and wonder. Whenever I walk into this sanctuary I am grateful for the ways in which this space offers me the opportunity to experience the presence of Spirit. When I hear the laughter of children in the hallway outside my office I am reminded that people’s lives are touched in this place. Ministry happens and God’s presence is felt at the corner of Winne and Oakes in Helena Montana because faithful people continue to respond to the call to care for and share the gifts which have been given.

So today we celebrate. Not because we’re done. Indeed, we will never be done. But in this moment we pause long enough to celebrate the completion of a faithful project which has enhanced this place where we gather to pray and play and worship and serve together. On behalf of all those whose lives are blessed because this facility is here I say thank you to each of you who played a part in making all of this possible. And thank you to God whose ongoing presence inspired such efforts in the first place. Thank you. Amen.