We continue this week with a sermon series entitled, "God's Cameo's: Finding the Spiritual in Reel Life" and we will discuss a movie which is currently running in theaters now, The Fault in Our Stars. 

I will attempt to give you a quick synopsis of the movie (without having to give a spoiler alert in case you have not seen it yet) which is based on the book of the same title by John Green. The central characters are two teenagers, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, who are dealing with cancer. They struggle with the deep questions of life and even though their lives are filled with uncertainties, they find joy in the world around them. While this movie will cause even the strongest person to cry, it is filled with an underlying love that is so deep that you will leave the theater with a heart full of hope.

Our text this week comes from John 15:1-8:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything. If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up. Those branches are gathered up, thrown into a fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples."

This text brings such imagery. A vine can take on many forms. It can be long and sinewy making it difficult to clear. It can be luscious and thick creating a beautiful covering on a fence. It can be dying in places and needing to be trimmed. Whatever the vine looks like, Jesus tells us in this text from the book of John that he is the central vine and we have been created as branches reaching out from this central vine. The vine provides the strength for the branches and gives the nutrients that sustain them. The vine does not exist without the branches reaching out.  What does this vine provide for us to keep us moving forward and reaching outward? Hope? Love? Strength? Compassion? I think our list could be exhaustive.

The Fault in Our Stars has so many teaching opportunities that we could focus on but Sunday morning we will narrow our focus on just a couple. Love and hope. Hazel Grace and Augustus show us that even through suffering, they continue to reach out through basic human relationships. They show us that even through suffering, love and hope remain. 

If you have not seen the movie you may watch the trailer here:

“It’s the core values of our church that our ministries have in common– serving from our hearts, living hopefully and expectantly, valuing each person and accepting our differences with love. We use the resources that God has provided to strengthen our community, trying to address whatever needs we discover. A few years ago, right after we’d renovated our Sanctuary, our congregation got together and realized this was God’s plan for us. All the energy you see here sort of sprouted from that moment.”
      - From Church in Overland Park Reinvents Itself 

READINGS: 
After that I will pour out my spirit upon everyone; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. (Joel 2.28)

When there’s no vision, the people get out of control, but whoever obeys instruction is happy. (Proverbs 29.18)

There is still a vision for the appointed time; it testifies to the end; it does not deceive. If it delays, wait for it; for it is surely coming; it will not be late. (Habakkuk 2.3)

Don’t remember the prior things; don’t ponder ancient history. Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? (Isaiah 43.18f.)
                                                         - All scripture CEB    

REFLECTION:
The vision & mission that have emerged from our Discernment Retreats have been given initial expression in a Future Story; that is to say, OPCC’s future story in narrative form. Our story is entitled Church in Overland Park Reinvents Itself, and it looks back on our situation from some unspecified point in the future. If you have begun to read and reflect on the story, you know that it describes a vital, dynamic, and courageous faith community that has identified its core values and undertaken the hard work required to live into them. I find it exciting to read (and reread!) the story, because I love the progressive and confident stance this community takes toward faith, the spiritual life, and the lived expression of faith in community service and the ongoing work for justice. You can readily recognize the faith community that has been molded through the past six decades; and yet the community is altogether new and exhilarating. I’m more than ready for this future, I desire to be a part of this faith community, and I pray you do as well.

One key passage in our future story looks back to a precise moment in the life of the faith community we call Overland Park Christian Church, and traces its development from that starting point. I have cited the passage in the heading above. Please read it again, and notice one particular statement, “A few years ago, right after we’d renovated our Sanctuary, our congregation got together and realized this was God’s plan for us. All the energy you see here sort of sprouted from that moment.”

If that description sounds more than vaguely familiar, it’s because we stand at that seminal moment now. This Is the Moment! We are the congregation that is commended for realizing God’s plan for their mission and ministry. We are the folks who are recognized for summoning the courage to embrace the plan and live into it day by day. We are the oh so very human group on which this future hinges. We may not sense ourselves up to the task; we might even wish that someone else – anyone else – would insure this promising future. But there is no one else to stand tall and courageous, and dare to envision a church reinvented, a church recreated. As the comic strip character Pogo used to say, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

Needless to say, the decisions we take in the next few months will have a tremendous effect on the future of this faith community. So I encourage you to be prayerfully discerning in your consideration of this unique story, and seek the grace to embrace it without fear. In our worship gatherings for the next several weeks, you will have opportunities to spend time in prayer and reflection at the future story display set up in the overflow room of our worship space. When you are ready – and not before – when you discern the willingness to embrace this vision, indicate that by writing on what will be our future vision banner. You may inscribe a prayer for our congregation, you may add a scripture passage that addresses the task at hand, a poetic image that reflects our situation, and you may even write your name if you choose.

I can’t help but wonder; when the fearless reporter in the story leaves our building after being awed and impressed by the congregation it houses, will the reporter see only the two signs specified in the narrative, or will the reporter also see a worn but proud hand-drawn banner on which we have left our mark? 

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
                      - T. S. Eliot



READING:
“Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I’m going.” Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father. From now on you know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father; that will be enough for us.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you all this time? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I have spoken to you I don’t speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on account of the works themselves. I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son. When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.
                - John 14.1-14 (Common English Bible) 


REFLECTION: 
I adore the words of T. S. Eliot cited above in which life – and all its pursuits – is portrayed in broad strokes as a journey of discovery whose end offers a new vision, a fresh perspective, a more profound understanding of the life we thought we knew so well. When and if we finally make our way home, we find it both strange and familiar; as if we are seeing it – truly seeing it - for the first time.

I wish we students of the Christian bible would take this wisdom to heart, and approach our studies as a journey of discovery in which we dare delve beneath the surface of the texts to the wonder, mystery, profundity, and challenge that reside within. I wish we would just own up to the fact that we never exhaust their meaning; and that there is always more to discover. More often than not this fresh perspective challenges our smugly held beliefs about the meaning of a passage of scripture, and how it informs our faith.

I’ve been thinking in this vein all week, because the gospel reading for Sunday is John 14.1-14; and I don’t want to preach from John 14. I don’t want to preach from this passage because of the many ways its meaning has been coopted, misused, even abused for the sake of supporting a cherished belief, or from the unwillingness to look beyond a traditional reading of the text.

And, let me tell you, several aspects of this passage have been misrepresented and misused. The first section about the troubled heart has been used so often at funerals that we think of it in a morbid sense as a reference to a smattering of comfort during a period of mourning. Released from this mindset, the passage offers a vivid, expansive hope of life lived in fullness both now and into the future. No modicum of comfort is offered in this passage; but rather a bold affirmation of fullness, meaning, and joy! Too often this is overlooked, and this passage becomes to funerals what Paul Stookey’s Wedding Song (a.k.a. There Is Love) is to weddings; bland, boring, and played on the wrong instrument altogether.

Would that this was the worst abuse this passage has seen. This oversight pales in comparison to the rigid, absolutist claims that have been made about Jesus’ self-proclamation as way, truth, and life. The profundity and subtlety of John’s message here is oversimplified, suppressed, or missed altogether so that the passage can be used to support a flat-out condemnation of a big chunk of the world God loves so much (at least according to Jesus). Isn’t it possible that life in its fullness is about something more than a statement of belief about Jesus? Is it inconceivable that God’s grace and compassion have just a bit more wiggle room than this reading allows?

Jesus as the way is an affirmation to be lived out in our life. Jesus as the way is a Jesus to be followed, not simply affirmed as an article of belief. This is underscored by the reference later in the passage to the disciples of Jesus doing the same works – even greater – as Jesus. And folks, this work is not that of a creedal statement. This work, exemplified throughout the life and ministry of Jesus, is an overflowing of compassion and grace; a refusal to allow any individual to go unrecognized and unvalued (like the Samaritan woman); the courage to stand for and with the marginalized and oppressed; and the will to let the love of God flow through us into the world.

Wow! I think I see something new here; or at least a profundity I have missed before. Perhaps there is more depth to be plumbed; perhaps this passage can inform our life of faith in new and powerful ways. I invite you to explore this possibility with me in worship on Sunday. 

Bear with patience all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were rooms yet to enter or books written in a foreign language. Don’t dig for answers that can’t be given you yet. Live the questions now, perhaps then, someday, you will live into the answer.
                - Rainer Maria Rilke (Adapted for worship)    


READING
Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.” But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.” Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.” Thomas said, “My Master! My God!” Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.” Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.    
                            - John 20:19, 24-31 (The Message)


REFLECTION
In a recent discussion over coffee with a friend I expressed reservations about a project he wanted to undertake, and he responded by calling me a Doubting Thomas. And – you know what? - it didn’t sound to me like a compliment. Most of us, in fact, think of doubt as something shady, dubious, unhealthy, or just plain dirty. We think of doubt as the beginning of a slippery slope careening off the narrow way. It may be a road less taken, but that’s okay because it’s not a road worth traveling. This is harsh stuff, no doubt (pun intended; I couldn’t resist), but perhaps this dark assessment of doubt explains why I was conditioned to feel guilty, even ashamed, for expressing doubt by the Southern-fried Fundamentalist Church in which I was raised.

I reckon I should confess that I didn’t prove to be an outstanding representative of this proud religious heritage. To me, doubt didn’t feel dirty from the inside out; that was imposed on me from the outside. For me, doubt was simply a necessity. It was there no matter how hard I tried to walk the walk of a fundamentalist and root it out with piety and stubborn belief. And in the end it was not a bad thing. In fact, it was only when I embraced my doubts and questions that they began to open out to spiritual insight, strength, and growth in the Spirit of which I was incapable before.

I think Thomas, commonly dubbed Doubting Thomas, would understand my plight; I think he experienced something quite similar in his spiritual life; and I think that this passage from John 20 reveals the origins of a spiritual giant that can serve as role model for faith. Faith, that is to say, that develops not in spite of, but through doubt. To be perfectly honest, I think the moral of this story is as simple as it is overlooked – doubt saves the day.

Before his encounter with the risen Lord, Thomas suffered from the same fears that drive many of us. He wanted hard proof of this claim of resurrection before he would be willing to risk anything on it. He didn’t want to christen anything as true unless he could feel it, touch it, probe it, and in so doing clearly define it, limit it, and make it manageable.

Please note, however, that when Jesus invited Thomas to touch, probe, and feel resurrection life… he declined, and exclaimed in near ecstasy, My Master! My God! His fear had vanished, and solid, earthbound evidence had become inadequate, even superfluous. Thomas’ doubt was transformed in the presence of resurrection life into what could be called caution in the face of mystery. His questions, his reservations, were not barriers to faith. Rather, they reflected his recognition that what he sought was beyond his understanding; it was beyond his control, that he had nothing to give to resurrection life, but had only to receive its fullness.

Like Thomas I say, Give me doubt or, to express it more forcefully, I doubt therefore I believe. Doubt as skepticism that is dubious of the strange, the new… not so much. Doubt as cynicism that is fundamentally distrustful of the motives and goals of others… not so much. Give me doubt that entices me beyond the narrow limits of my truth, my understanding, and my conclusions to something mysterious and wonder-full. Something like resurrection life.