Wadhams United Church of Christ
2569 County Route 10, Wadhams, NY 12993
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1 Peter 2:4-12
The young couple had big dreams for the small house they had just snapped up in a real estate court auction. It was in a nice neighborhood on a hill in the Sunnyside section of San Francisco. It was a charming, one-bedroom cottage built in 1910, and they knew from the start that it was going to need some work. But they were young, and they had lots of energy and enthusiasm for the project. Okay, they knew it was going to need a lot of work. The brief description on the auction listing made it clear that it was a fixer-upper. If you want to be completely and compulsively honest, it had a lot of problems.
To be specific, the auction description would seem rather melodramatic to the average reader: “Major Fixer Upper needs everything,” read the listing. “Buyers and agents beware of unstable building, floors, dry rot and foundations.” You would think that would have been enough. But no, they took it a dramatic step further by tacking on a clearly exaggerated warning: “Enter at your own risk.” But they were young, and they had lots of energy and enthusiasm for the project. So the couple is probably thinking to themselves, “Really: how bad can it be?” I used to have thoughts like that, and they sometimes still occur to me. But now that I’m older and wiser, I’ve trained myself to know that when I have that kind of thought, I should be very, very afraid.
But they were young, and their dreams were big, and the price was unheard of in San Francisco. It was impossibly low. Nobody finds real estate at that price in the city. So for a mere $525,000 they had themselves a new home. It was a steal. What could possibly go wrong? Again, those of us with experience have learned the hard way that nearly everything can go wrong. With a little bit of outside help, they rolled up their sleeves and started in. They got a building permit, which is always a good idea these days, to do a partial foundation replacement. They did everything you’re supposed to do when you undertake a project like that: they shored the house up with a temporary wooden frame, bracing it here and there in the spots that looked like they might be problematic.
But on a pleasant Sunday afternoon just about two years ago, one neighbor heard an ominous thunderous sound that he mistook for a jet breaking the sound barrier. Another neighbor likened the raucous rumble to a truck load of lumber falling off the truck. As the house buckled around the hapless new homeowner, one front corner slammed into a neighboring house, breaking its window and leaving cracks in its interior walls. Officials yellow-tagged the neighbor’s fractured home, which appeared to be acting as a crutch for the fallen cottage. A back corner of the Major Fixer Upper twisted in an impossible fashion and shot out about twenty feet in the opposite direction.
Fortunately, the new owner was rescued from the rubble unhurt. Unfortunately, the damage was so significant that the new owners probably had to raze the home and start over again. Unfortunately, the young couple’s dream collapsed along with the house. Fortunately, they’re young, and energetic, and hopefully, they can still make dreams come true. Fortunately, you didn’t have any problems like that when you put a new foundation under the fellowship hall a few years ago. Unfortunately, the fellowship hall ended up costing more money than you wanted to spend. Fortunately, we’re now in a position to bring the completion of the hall’s downstairs renovation within sight, so it looks very much like that dream is about to come true.
What got me thinking about foundations and buildings is today’s reading from 1 Peter, which paints a wonderful word picture of a spiritual house being built with living stones. While our quaint little church and the fellowship hall behind us have withstood the tests of time and the extreme ordeal of replacing a foundation, the real story of what is happening in our midst is taking place in our very human lives. The divine drama that is unfolding within our small congregation is nothing less than the work of God, as the very Spirit of God shapes the living stones of our lives to fit into God’s blueprint for the Wadhams UCC.
Unfortunately, the architect’s work cost us more than we bargained for. Fortunately, we had someone who could guide us through the pitfalls and potential dangers of renovating an historic building. Even though they had a building permit, the young couple from San Francisco apparently didn’t shore up the house well enough before they started working on the foundation, with some devastating consequences. At least, that’s what the building inspector told them after the house caved in on the new homeowner, who had been working on the foundation that pleasant Sunday afternoon.
Fortunately, God has a divine design for this church, and each and every one of us has a role to play as God’s architecture becomes a living reality in us and through us. Unfortunately, there are setbacks along the way, and the rebuilding project that we are undergoing both figuratively and symbolically has been long and strenuous. My time together with you has been both challenging and rewarding as we have labored toward a common vision of what the physical and spiritual building projects should look like. Unfortunately, my tenure here is about to come to an end.
This past year has been a difficult one for me. My fatigue levels have sometimes brought me dangerously close to physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. My resistance to viruses seemed to collapse inward on itself, and I missed more hours from my work at hospice than I was allotted. I used vacation days so I could recuperate, and when I ran out of those, I had to dip into the time bank that my employer had conscientiously set up for cases like mine so that I could get paid for my sick time. On Easter weekend, for the very first time in my career as a pastor, I was reduced to reusing a sermon that I had already preached to you. Betty was convinced on that Saturday afternoon that she was going to have to get up to read you a sermon.
So, with a great deal of sadness and regret, I am submitting my letter of resignation to you. In keeping with the covenantal relationship we have by virtue of our contract and in the covenantal love we share as a congregation, the next thirty days will be my last as your pastor. My last Sunday with you will be June 7. Dee and I have already explored some options for my replacement with a supply pastor. Our conference minister Marian Shearer is aware of what is happening and is willing to do whatever she can do to help support you in the process.
In those conversations, I have been able to clarify the fact that it isn’t necessary for you to redo the paperwork for a full-blown pastoral search. It was networking that eventually brought me here to you, and Marian and I am convinced that it will be networking that will lead you to the next pastor to serve here. Please know that I haven’t stopped loving you and caring about you. My love and concern for you have kept me here, and I will continue to think about you and pray for you in the weeks, month, and years to come.
I have every intention of being here for the Strawberry Festival to sell books, and I am looking forward to seeing the presentation of “Wadhams then and Now.” In order to allow the new pastoral leadership to come in and establish a good bond with you, I will not be returning to worship with you or to do pulpit supply for at least a year. Please don’t misinterpret my absence for the lack of care. On the contrary, I want good things for you, and you need to be able to connect with a new pastor without me interfering with that process. Beyond that, I can easily see myself coming back from time to time to see how you are doing.
God opened a door for me to come and provide an extended season of stability in answer to the instability you had known. You are at an important junction in the life and history of this church, and God stands ready to complete the good work of building and rebuilding this spiritual house. You are the living stones, the very handiwork of God, and God is already hard at work to shape you and my successor for the work that lies ahead. For God has a blueprint, and just as you have labored long and hard to make a renovated fellowship hall into a gathering place, God will now equip you with everything you need to proceed toward the future that God has for you. May God bless us all as we journey toward that vision of God at work with us and within us.
Welcome, Announcements & Prayer Requests
A Candle for Peace NC #591 (vs. 1)
Opening Prayer
Leader: Beloved God, we gather to praise you, the God who has us engraved in the palms of your hand.
People: Ever-loving God, we come with thanksgiving for your love for us—a love that has a mother’s tenacity and tenderness.
Leader: We come together as a part of your family—a family where love binds us together through good times and bad.
People: Heart to heart, we come to worship you, proclaiming your love and our faith to one another and to our families and our world.
Leader: Help us to abide in your love, that we may bear the fruit of love and compassion.
People: Help us to respond to your word, your promises, and your love with steadfast faithfulness.
Hymn NC #31 All Things Bright & Beautiful
Responsive Prayer
Leader: Loving God, the prophets have often spoken of how you are as a mother to us: giving us life, teaching us the way of God, correcting us when we go wrong, nurturing us with all good things.
People: We are grateful for all your mothering, not only of us, but of all your creation.
Leader: We thank you for our own mothers, those who gave us life, those who raised us and taught us, and those who sacrificed for us. Help us to forgive the times our mothers failed us or hurt us. If our mothers have died, we pray they rest from their labors in the peace of your love.
People: We ask your blessings and help for all who are mothers. Give them your help and hope. Give them the resources and support they need to keep their families healthy and strong.
Leader: Be especially with women who are struggling to raise children in the midst of war, poverty, oppression, or fear.
People: Strengthen mothers of all nations whose children are soldiers or who work in other dangerous professions, as they fear for their children’s safety daily.
Leader: Comfort all mothers whose children have died or are seriously ill, and help them to lean on you.
Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer
Hymn NC #426 O God, Whose Steadfast Love
Psalm 25:1-10, Isaiah 42:1-8, 1 Peter2:4-12
Sermon Building Projects
Offering, Doxology, Dedication
Hymn NC #460 Be Not Dismayed
Benediction
Leader: Blessed God, let your love fill up any empty spots within us, and let it flow through us to others who know emptiness.
People: As your children, we are strengthened by your loving Spirit. In that Spirit of love, we offer our love and our lives to your service.
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