In this congregation we have claimed some core values, some things about which we feel deeply enough to commit ourselves. Surely we can be passionate in this church as we build our ministries around the values of and practices of spirituality, of friendship, and of justice. We want this to be a place of trust…here is the place where we trust God, trust each other, and trust ourselves to do the right thing, here is where we bring our certainty that we can come as we are, and it will be all right. Here is where we say of our congregation that, “Broad Street Christian Church is a spiritual place, a loving place, a justice seeking place where all persons are, in the name of Jesus Christ, welcome, safe, and nurtured as we serve God and as we serve one another.”

Most of us know what it is to have a child reach up to grab our hand; you may remember what it feels like to reach up for a trusted hand and to trust that it will be there to say, “I’ve got you, you are safe now.” So it is with the people we trust, and so it is with our faith.

That is the word of assurance given to Peter’s audience. There they were, a church in exile, keeping the faith while they faced the threat of persecution, immigrant Jewish Christians living away from Jerusalem. The writer sends this letter to the church to say, “be encouraged” have passion and find joy in the one who gives meaning to your life; look to Jesus Christ, God’s son, our Savior, who holds us together. Have passion, find joy, live in faith. It is a word to us. For certainly there are days when we need to be encouraged.

I have told several people in the last week that we will have to face every reality we know here – the need to grow in every way, the need to face our own mortality as we age, face health concerns, and the inability to do all that we used to do, and what ever else confronts us. But I refuse to be negative or bitter about it. This is a time for us be encouraged. That is why I like being around passionate, joy-filled people. They have some qualities I like.

They know what to hold on to and what to let go. We know that we cannot feel joy or positive passion if we are carrying a load of negative stuff all the time. Negativity and bitterness zap our energy and steals our joy, it creates gaps in our spirits that make room for deception, and insincerity, and envy as we look at what other people have, and at what other churches are doing, and feel resentment and anger toward them.

I promised last week that I would tell you about the growth that Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in Cleveland has had over the last fifteen years. We could envy them, but I would rather we learn from them. They are a passionate, joy-filled people. I had lunch with their pastor and a few lay people in April and heard their story of transformation.

In 1990, Pilgrim Church had a worshiping congregation of 30 people in a large underused building that was in disrepair. It was opened for Sunday worship and Wednesday afternoon for a Bible study taught by a retired United Methodist pastor. The pipe organ had not been played in 20 years, and most of the pipes were on the floor in a storage room. They were living on their endowment, because thirty people could not support the church. Their endowment still supports the building.

They faced two choices, they could close gracefully and die with as much dignity as a church can have, or they could do something different. They chose to do something different and called a pastor, Laurinda Haffner, who could help them, in their words to, “fulfill their responsibility in the church and the world.” The pastor, who kept her full-time job on the UCC national staff, asked them, “do you want to grow?” They thought for a moment and then said, “yes we do.” They remembered that there was a tradition of change in the church. Their pastor led them they said, with grace, boldness, and with good pastoral care throughout. They became an Open and Affirming Church in 1993. Laurie also says that what helped most her was that the lay leadership at Pilgrim was committed to the church in a way that let her as the pastor-leader lead without being second- guessed; she had leaders who had her back, they supported her by acting as a buffer, they are the ones who talked with the naysayers in the congregation.

One of the most life-giving actions the congregation took was to find what they called a “rallying point”, something that would excite and unify the congregation. Those thirty, along with their friends, spent $72,000 and six months restoring the organ and the sanctuary. They painted the pipes, they hung new wall paper in the sanctuary, they literally opened the doors and windows of the church. As they rebuilt the organ, they rebuilt community, they talked to each other as they worked, they rediscovered what it means to be the church and people began to come and the church began to grow.

Today, they are a congregation of around 300, their worship is relevant and vital, they are mission focused. They are in a $1.5 million capital campaign to remodel their kitchen and fellowship hall.

They practice hospitality, this is the church with the nametag lady who hand writes a name tag for every member and visitor to the church. They have begun to focus on the arts, making use of the two small theatres that are in their building. There are members of the congregation that have expressed worry about the “wear and tear” that will happen as “strangers” use their building, but they have discovered that the more they opened their doors, the more people have honored the church. And they are thriving today. Pilgrim is a church filled with joy and passion and the transforming spirit of God.

I share their story not so that we will feel bad; I don’t want us to be stopped by our lack of endowment, I want us to be creative as we build toward growth. In fact their story inspires me to ask some questions: where is our joy and passion for this congregation? What is God calling us to do here? What is our rallying point? Is it doing something in this building – we have a chapel that needs renovating and a fellowship hall that needs refurbishing. Is it a ministry to families, is it helping people maintain health and wellness, is it modeling what it means to be a diverse and inclusive church? Is it getting a sign that stands out enough so that people going by will know we are here? I want to invite all of you to help me and the lay leadership of our congregation to find our rallying point, and then to join us in making this good church great again. We will need to listen to God to find our rallying point, but that is what passionate, joy-filled people listen do.

When we do, we will discover our desire to live and to do whatever we need to do in order to find the abundance God has for us. We are not Pilgrim Congregational Church United Church of Christ on the near west side of Cleveland, Ohio; we are Broad Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on the near east side of Columbus, Ohio, but we are nonetheless called to be joy filled and passionate because of who and whose we are. I believe that except for the money (and that is a big except), there is nothing at Pilgrim Congregational Church that is not here. The question is what will we do with what we have? After all, we have a culture of hospitality, we are not totally resistant to change, we want to grow and live and thrive, we are not totally closed in upon ourselves, and our pipe organ is not in disrepair. We can rally in this place and serve God and be the shining city on a hill that God has called us to be. I believe it, do you?

We can drink the spiritual milk, and use the strength we gain from the nourishment God gives us to claim and live our faith in Christ, that is our starting point. We can proclaim our love for God in worship, that is our gathering point; and we can reclaim a willing spirit of support for the church and for service to others, that is our giving point. There is joy in giving ourselves to Christ, there is joy in worshiping the living God, there is joy in giving to sustain our ministries and to begin new ones.

This is a day for us to be less about bitterness and more about thanksgiving, to say no to envy of what others have, and yes to opening ourselves to what God will lead us to do.

Passionate, joy-filled people have conviction about who they are in Christ Jesus. The hymn says that “Christ is made the sure foundation, Christ the head and cornerstone, chosen of the Lord and precious, binding all the church in one; holy Zion’s help forever, and our confidence alone” (Chalice Hymnal, #275).

He is the living stone, the one chosen by God, created, loved, who invites us to love and live with him every day of our lives, and to become with him a spiritual house. Can you think of yourself as a spiritual house? Is your spirit, your house a place of prayer, of love, of hope, of joy? Is there room for Jesus in your house?

I pray there is because it is the presence of Jesus the Christ in our spirits and in this spiritual house that helps us live. Will that presence make our lives perfect? No. Does it mean we will go through life with no pain, and no disappointment? We know better. But it does mean that with him, we have the strength, the discipline, and the grace to get through every change. After all we are among the chosen not better than anyone else, but beloved by God; we are a royal priesthood, offering leadership and worship, we are God’s own people. We have a relationship with God, but notice that we are God’s own people, not God’s only people, we cannot be arrogant about our relationship, but the opportunity to respond to God everyday by giving to God the best most excellent offering we can. We do not do it for our sake, but so we can proclaim the good and great works of God who has called us to be who we are.

We can grow, we can offer ministry inside and outside these walls, we can receive tender mercies of God and give that same mercy to others. As we do we will show the world that we will live with passion, joy, and faithfulness. That is our call and our privilege and the promise we have from Jesus the Christ who will go with us every step of the way. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor