Embracing Three Amigos

Rev. Bill Barney

First UMC, Schenectady

June 15, 2008

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand = to those who falter. Romans 15: 1a

“We can surrender to this process, letting go of our past self with great love = and gratitude, and welcoming the new with an open mind and heart, ready for our next phase of life.” And so, these words from the DailyOM begin what = is intended to be my last sermon during 37 continuous years of full time minis= try in the local church, interrupted only by 8 years as an administrator. No, I am not retiring yet, just retreading for less than full time service – as it’s called in = the Discipline.

I do have “love and gratitude for the past” which is to be let go= and I do have “an open mind and heart, ready for the next phase of life.&= #8221; Don’t worry, I’m = not going to recount all my years of ministry here today, that would be too much like a eulogy. But, I would like to introduce you to three of the amigos…friends…who have accompanied me along this journey. The three I’ve chosen to mention this day are one’s which I feel we= all need to embrace along the way of life’s journey. And, when we donR= 17;t embrace them it is our loss – we get lost in struggle and resistance.=

As a Waterbury boy – that’s VT not CT – I learned early on as today’s scripture from The Me= ssage teaches “Strength is for service, not status.” And, our fifth grade teacher Mrs. Wrisley taught us also as The Letter to the Romans says: “Each one of= us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, ‘How can I help’?” That has pretty much summoned up the goal of my ministry, if not its accomplishment.

The first amigo I want to introduce is “inexperience”. I began in ministry with lots of inexperience but I am happy to say I embraced it! I went to my first appointment hav= ing never served in a United Methodist Church to do anymore than preach a sermon and lead worship on Sunday.

My inexperience got me into trouble almost immediately. I did my best to act like I knew w= hat I was doing. Basically, I didn’t fool anybody. But….my congregati= on embraced my inexperience and let me make all the mistakes my greenhorn soul= and body could conger up. I learn= ed more from my mistakes in that setting than I had learned about leading a ch= urch in four years of seminary. I took four years in seminary instead of the usu= al three because I was on the “why hurry back to Vermont when I’m having so much fun in Boston plan.”

The good news is that my congregation came to appreciate many of my ideas and embraced them as well as me and my inexperience. When I left that congregation they= were in much better health as a church and I had the confidence to move on with = what I had learned, to another place where I did much less initial damage.<= /o:p>

All this is to invite you, whatever your age, to embrace inexperience and embra= ce the inexperienced. There are = those among us of with little church experience or spiritual experience or religi= ous experience generally. It is t= hese folks whom we need to be giving places of leadership in the local church and the Annual Conference. Their ideas, which are unencumbered by institutional baggage, can take us to a new place of vitality and radical visioning, even= if it is by trial and error.

As I have said many times in recent months, in church and politics, experience= has never been less important in my life time. The rapid movement of the 21st century demands new way of thinking and creative ways of acting.=

This brings me to amigo number two. Throughout my ministry I have had to embrace “change”. Early on, even in t= hat first appointment, I made change my friend. Even it if it meant reversing cour= se in one of my mistakes of inexperience, I made change my friend. I have no idea= why I was given the gift of being able to embrace this early on. It is a gift which many don’= t seem to have.

The church and religion have had to change more in the last 40 years than at any time in history, except perhaps when it had to come to terms with the fact = that the sun did not revolve around the earth. Even though it faced change at the beginning of Protestantism, much of the way it did business remained the sa= me as it was when all were Roman Catholics.

The hardest part of my ministry in that last 40 years was not in accepting chan= ge myself, but in trying to convince local churches that they had to change or die. Sadly the majority of churches have not changed that much and they hav= e or will die soon. Studying, acce= pting and living a progressive theology in worship and Christian Education has not been attended to by many clergy or churches. I am not talking about dying for la= ck of parishioners, but dying for the lack of relevance in the civil community. <= o:p>

Don’t be fooled by so-called conservative evangelical congregations that are described as growing. They are growing communities of people seeking affirmation of their prosperity and religious support for personal and nati= onal security, as the most important factors in life. They may be growing but in= the historical sense of the term, they are not churches.

Doing what we do, differently, in the 21^st century – especially = the next decade – will be necessary in every church. We must make change = our friend more than ever. What w= e do on Sunday and the rest of the week must reach out with more and more releva= nce to the civil community or we’ll become merely a meeting place for the relationally disconnected. Ch= ange has been big in my entire ministry – it’s still a biggie!<= /o:p>

The third amigo which is newer to me is “aging”. Aging is something we all experien= ce every day of our lives. You can only age if you are alive. I welcome aging as a gift - the alternative doesn’t offer much of a future – unless you have sp= ent your whole life worrying about the afterlife and where that would be. Personally, I highly recommend living fully today and loving generously tod= ay with little thought of where it will get you.

In my work, in our work together, it is my intention to help the aging in our midst – as in those of us of retirement age and older - embrace inexp= erience and change as friends in our midst. We need to be yielding leadership to younger folks in favor of being coaches, mentors and cheerleaders. We need to be willing to change ou= r way of doing church, when doing so may make us a more welcoming and relevant fellowship of followers of Jesus. And, younger folks, we need for you to embrace your inexperience and step up to the plate of leadership and servic= e.

Let me say, that this congregation has the most wonderful community of older fo= lks I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Person after person is humbly serv= ing in a myriad of support services that benefit and enhance our life together. Wh= ere many church members would stop volunteering, if they could not be in charge – here many are willing to be volunteer support staff without complai= nt and with a willing heart. I a= dmire all of you! You ARE a model f= or all of us who are just now embracing our friend called “aging”. (ca= n I get a hand on that?)

Inexperience, change and aging – three amigos – we all encounter along the wa= y of life. The question is do we resist or embrace? I pray that I may embrace the last= as enthusiastically as I have embraced the first two. Remembering these words from today’s scripture reading: “…let’s agree to use all our energy in getting alo= ng with each other. Help others with encouraging words, don’t drag them = down by finding fault….Each one of us needs to look after the good people around us, asking ourselves, ‘How can I help?’”