Faith, Integrity and our Mission

Good morning—it’s good to be back in the pulpit and with you today. 

Now I have to confess—I am kind of a church nerd—early on in my ministry I was always reading “church” books—I still do, but not as much —I love so much about churches and congregational development and worship and preaching—I love talking about church, thinking about church.  

So I have to say I was excited this summer when the vestry passed a revised mission statement---a mission statement says why do we exist— it says what are we doing here— and it helps to give us direction on which way we should move and go.   

Being a church nerd that excites me.

I know some of you are thinking mission statement—smission statement –boring stale.  But what if we thought about the mission statement as a living breathing document-that  gave us life and direction and purpose -what if it helped us figure out how to do things and do things better—let me give you an example—part of the statement says St. Dunstan’s seeks to be a community nourished by worship.   So what do we do if we are see  that some people aren’t be nourished by worship— if we seek to be a community nourished by worship-- then we need to ask the question-how can we or what can we do to make worship more nourishing for you?  

Or what if we were able to look at the mission statement and see how we contribute to St. Dunstan’s parish and find purpose—somebody in the choir might wow—my ministry has purpose my music is helping lift people to the gates of heaven—it’s filling them with life—that nourishing others or someone who volunteers in the Sunday school might say wow—I am helping these kids grow in faith--  Grow in faith is  another part of the mission statement.   

You can tell I’m excited about it and how we might us it to be more responsive to God’s call to us. 

Anyway,  this year as we move through the lectionary—one of the things I going to be doing is preaching the mission statement all through the year.   We are going to talk about nourishing worship—we are going to talk about growing in faith or being a welcoming community or serving our neighbors.  So to kick it off this September I am going to be preaching about growing in faith—and using the book of James as a lens for that.

When we say something grows –somehow the thing that’s growing changes—growth implies that there is an increase in the amount of something. We can see it in children—we can watch plants grow bigger and blossom.   So to say faith grows it means that it means that it increases. 

Being a follower of Jesus we are challenged to continue to grow.s-he was constantly trying to teach his disciples and the people around him what it meant to live a faithful life.   Growing in faith implies That from the moment we are born until the moment we take our last breath there is the potential that faith can grow and change and increase and that our relationship with God and with each and the world can grow and strengthen and develop. Faith formation,  faith development doesn’t end when we age out of Sunday school.  

There is an old saying that says God meets us wherever we are –we could have a tiny thimble full of faith and God meets us there –we could have a vast reservoir of faith and God meets us there to.  The saying has a second part--- Anybody know it?

God meets us wherever we are… but he doesn’t want us to stay there.  God meets us wherever we are but doesn’t want us to stay there.  This saying says that God’ very desire is for growth and movement. 

So where does James come in –I think what James does--- he reminds us that there is both an interior part of faith—what we believe and also an exterior part of faith that is visible tangible –that you can look at and observe.

James has been lobbing these grenade the last two weeks in the lectionary reminding us about the dual nature of faith.  This week the grenade was Faith without works is dead or last week was  “don’t be merely hearers of the word but also doers.”  James reminds us that there is a both a talk the talk and walk the walk element of faith and that our beliefs should match our actions. 

And it’s not that God has a big ledger in the sky and that works are related to our eternal salvation—rather works are an expression of the faith within us. 

That there should be integrity between what we say we believe and how we behave—this has been getting churches into trouble of late.

So the challenge for us today is to be the person we say we are— to be people of integrity where our actions match our beliefs.  And James says that if we don’t do this people are going to be left behind—shut out—find that this world is harsh and cruel ----his concrete example is the poor not being fed.  Our call as Christians is to help usher in goodness and kindness and love so that all might experience it, and it starts with integrity to live the life that Jesus challenges us to live.  

Where are you challenged to live with integrity?  Think about that this week and know that when you do live with integrity -- goodness and kindness and love follow.  

AMEN