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Sunday,
October 10, 2004
Sermon: “Change is Good?”
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:1.4-7
Reverend Larry Gerber
Sometimes change is good. Babies come into the world needing to be cleaned up, cuddled, and wrapped in a warm blanket. And, yes, change is good every now and then for the next couple of years.
Change doesn’t start with a beginning, but withanending.Today’sstorySPANstyle=mso-spacerun: yes"> is the story of ancient Israel, modern businesses and the contemporary church. New life comes only when we say goodbye to the old life. We must discard the old before putting on the new. One needs to identify the old, and get rid of it, then discover the new and take it with you into your new life.
Pretend that I have two blank 3x5 cards for each of you. Take these cards and hold on to them until I give further instructions a little later in the service.
Life and death:
That’s the way we usually look at things, isn’t it? First you live, then through change, you die unto yourself, and go into a stage of hibernation, and then you have new life. Through the process of metamorphosis, you become a new creation!!
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to you about “living, while waiting to die.” Sometimes you have to die before you can live. You have to die to the old self before you can put on the new. And quite often, that means having a funeral service for the old. Shed the cocoon and say goodbye to the empty shell, while you spread your wings in the newness of life.
Kenny Moore was working for the Brooklyn Gas Company when it faced an enormous challenge. Deregulation meant that the end was near for old monopolies like Brooklyn Gas, and so the company had to change into a new company called KeySpan, one that could survive in a fiercely competitive marketplace. Kenny Moore knew that this transformation was going to be a shock to his organization, and so he suggested that the company hold an event to help people with this transition.
Kenny recommended that they hold a funeral.
It wasn’t the gas fumes that put this idea into Kenny’s head — it was his training as a monk. For 15 years, he had been part of a strict monastic order in New Jersey, where he ministered to the sick and the poor. Then, at age 34, Kenny left the order and began to work in human resources at the gas company.
So when the time came for Brooklyn Gas to transform itself in to KeySpan, Kenny was ready. He booked a conference room for the funeral service, and set it up by putting a funeral urn and two fake tombstones in one corner. According to Fast Company (February 2004), he wore his priestly stole and played a tape of Gregorian chants.
“Dearly beloved,” he said to the 60 or 70 people in attendance, “we are gathered here today to bid a fond farewell to the Brooklyn Union Gas of old.” Then he asked people to write, on index cards, what was over for the company — what was now dead. People wrote things like “lifetime employment” and “monopoly,” and stuffed them in the urn.
Take a moment now, and, in your mind, on one of the pretend 3x5 cards, write some things in your life that are burdens, things that have died in you, but that you still hang on to; things that you need to get rid of: ideas, thoughts, physical things that you need to give to Granny’s attic, weighty things that you need to discard, or give over to God. Put these things in your hand and hold on to them. Pretend that they are in the cocoon. Hold onto them for a moment.
Kenny got out some holy water and blessed the urn that now held the things that were over for the company. He knew that the company would have to die before it could live.
We too have things that must die, in order for us to go forward. Hold your hands up now full of things that must you must get rid of, and allow this water to symbolically make those burdens disappear. I took this water from the Jordan River, near the spot where Jesus received His baptism. (I will sprinkle some water from the Jordan River toward the congregation). Imagine this water washing your burdens from your hands, and from your hearts. Feel the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you cannot let go, maybe you are afraid to give these things up, scared of the emptiness left when these burdens are gone. You may need to bring those burdens to the altar and dump them, either now, or after the service. You need to get rid of those burdens soon, and be ready to begin anew.opopSPANP
In Kenny’s eulogy of the gas company, he focused their attention on another corner, one that contained a steamer trunk for the things they needed to carry with them on their journey into new life. This time, Kenny asked them to write on a second index card what they would need for this new journey. They wrote things like “great people” and “dedication to the community,” and threw the cards in the trunk.
Finally, he had a stork from a Valentine’s display stand as a symbol of their birth as a new company, KeySpan. He invited everyone to draw what the future of the company might look like, using crayons and poster paper. By that point, he reports, everyone was participating.
Take a moment now, and on the second pretend 3x5 card, write some things that you need to take with you on your journey through your new life. Behold, you have been born anew! The stork has delivered. Things you might want to take with you on this new journey could be new things, or things that have been in storage, either in your house, or in your head. Make that change from the caterpillar, crawling through life, through metamorphosis, from the dormant cocoon, to the butterfly, flying freely, soaring and dipping in the newness of life.
We need to build houses and plant gardens that we can be proud of.
After the funeral, the chief financial officer of the company said to Kenny, “Nobody but you could have gotten away with this.” But Kenny didn’t feel like it was any big deal. “People are dying to be connected, invited, involved,” he explained. He knew that this funeral would help his colleagues express themselves about the huge transition that they were experiencing. They had to grieve the death of one company before they could celebrate the birth of another.
What happened at Brooklyn Gas is a good — if imperfect — picture of what was happening to the people of Israel already gassed after going through an equally radical change in exile in Babylon.
They’d journeyed from Jerusalem to Babylon, from traditions to change, from the familiar to the strange, from the beloved to the be-loathed.
Their old life was as dead as Brooklyn Gas in a time of deregulation, but there were a good many Israelites who simply didn’t want to let go. Many of them, longing for their former ways, wept by the rivers of Babylon and wailed the anguished question, “How could we sing the LORD’S song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1-4).
They wouldn’t release their grip. Although God had sentenced them to 70 years in exile, they refused to face facts. Although they wouldn’t admit it, what they really needed to do was book a conference room at the Babylon Best Western Hotel and Conference Center ... and hold a funeral service.
This is essentially what the prophet Jeremiah encourages them to do. In a letter to these homesick exiles, he delivers this word from the Lord: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. …..multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:5-7).
Your old life is dead, says the Lord; your new life is to be found in Babylon. Deal with it. Get ready to settle down for several generations. The challenge for them as well as for us today is to find peace in a time of anxiety, and to build homes and families in a strange and foreign land.
Most surprising of all, they are to pray not for the peace of Jerusalem, but for the peace of Babylon, for “in its welfare,” promises God, “you will find your welfare.”
It’s time for the Israelites to hold a funeral service for their homeland, and to toss into the funeral urn the things they have lost. Into the urn goes “Jerusalem”…“the temple”…“the family homestead”… “King
Zedekiah of Judah.” These are terrible losses for the Israelites, and it makes perfect sense that they would mourn.
But at the very same time, God is promising them that they do not have to be destroyed by this time of exile. They can carry a treasure chest with them, and into this chest can go the valuable things they will need for their life in the years to come: “fertility”...“friends and family”...“food and shelter”...“well-being and productivity”...“faith in God.” All of these things are going to be possible for them in the land of Babylon, and God encourages them to carry these blessings with them into the years that lie ahead.
Out with the old; in with the new. Transition. Death. Life.
It’s a lesson that we need to apply when assessing the future of the church. One of the most daunting and difficult challenges we face in the church today is the transition from institution...to mission movement. “Most Protestant congregations are stuck in the muck and mire of their institutions,” writes Bill Easum in his book UnFreezing Moves. Members of these churches define faithfulness as support for their church, and their focus is on programs, structures, budgets and institutional survival. We all know how things go in the life of such an institution: A new ministry idea is brought to the pastor, and the pastor takes the idea to the church council. They reject the idea a good 95 percent of the time because they are suspicious of it, and, quite frankly, they’ve “never done it that way before.” The end result is a lifeless church and a dying institution.
The time has come to schedule its funeral. And then to change.
If we let such institutions die, we’ll find that the church will discover new life as a mission movement. Like the Israelites in Babylon, we can experience life and growth and spiritual health in a strange new land, especially if we work hard to make strong connections with the outside world.
Churches that see themselves as mission movements are in a constant state of innovation, trying new styles of worship and education and fellowship in an ongoing attempt to connect people to God. These congregations have broken free of their slavery to institutions and, in the words of Bill Easum, are “joining Jesus on the mission field.”
Institution...or mission movement? What are we, and what do we want to be? One is going to have to die in order for the other to have a chance at life.
The experience of the Hebrew children in Babylon might also be a lesson that we need to apply when assessing our own personal future.
How many of us are mired in a rut, a disappointment, a pattern of behavior, an unhealthy circumstance, and we just can’t seem to move on? How many of you are still holding on to the first 3x5 card this morning?
Perhaps God is telling us that, whatever it is, we need to dig a hole, bury it, stick a flower on it, and move on.
You get the idea here. We, as a church, as well as individuals, are being challenged by God to engage in the hard work of personal transformation with the help of God. We all need to “bury” what needs to be left behind, and record what we will need for the new journey.
We have to die before we can live. This is the story of Israel, the story of Brooklyn Gas, the story of our crucified and risen Lord. New life can come only after we say goodbye to the old.
“Kenny
Moore held a funeral and everyone came.” They had to bury the old before
the could give birth to the new. Life after death! Change is good! We are challenged
to sing a new song in a foreign land. We have built the institution, now we
must be in mission for Christ.
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Source: Tischler, Linda. ast Company, February 2004, 30.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766