A Beautiful City

A Beautiful City

A Sermon on Acts 2:1-11

By Griff Martin

For the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith

On Pentecost Sunday

May 20 2018

Come Holy Spirit, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire. Give us words that get us out of here and onto the streets, being your church.   Amen and Amen.

A recent article in the New York Times summed it up best, an article about Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in South Carolina, with the headline “Hearts are Willing, but Their Numbers Are Dwindling.” The article highlighted a trend in religion these days: crisis. This monastery in the 1950’s had 55 monks, today they have 13 left, the average age has also increased from 30 to 77 years old. The monks are afraid that what they have worked so hard to create is now dying a slow and painful death and they face the same question we all face: “to what degree can and should age old religious traditions adapt to survive in a rapidly evolving world?”

The article might sound depressing but it was incredibly hopeful because it highlighted ways the monastery is adapting to a new world and it showed this incredible willingness of an institution to change it’s ways in order to minister to the world today (or as Anna Carter Florence said in a recent lecture: “Fearing the church’s extinction is really a waste of energy so let’s admit we need some midwifing that teaches us to fear God so that we might birth what the church might birth.”)

The monks have chosen to take on and even revolt against Catholic doctrine they no longer find acceptable, finding new ways to introduce religion and spirituality to young people without a life long commitment of entering the monastery, finding new ways to use and offer their space and services. As one monk said, “we’re being forced to try something new and innovative.” Another monk: “I don’t want to spend my remaining years simply hanging on. I’d rather be in a community that has vital energy and good community life.” Another monk: “We expect to be here for another thousand years but it’s going to look different… and Mepkin Abbey, these monks still present here- we want to be part of shaping what the future looks like.” 

They are adapting and they are finding great joy in doing so. This is a story I believe we too are finding our way into, shaping our next chapter… and I have great joy about that First Austin. 

On this birthday of the church, these monks remind me of another group of followers, some who were driven less by the fear of preservation and more by the fear of  “what are we supposed to do now", a group huddled together in an upper room until they were suddenly and literally blown out onto the streets by the wind of God…. Speaking new languages and attracting a lot of attention. 

And I used to think that new language was a show of sorts— a display of something, but I have wondered this week if that new language was more about disrupting all their talking and planning and saying “Get moving and if you all speak 10,000 languages you are going to have to use your feet and actions, not your words.”

Because Church I believe with everything in me we are at a crucial point in history and our future. Someone asked me why a few days ago, and here is why: through prayer, contemplation and hearing God’s presence in my soul, I see a world that so badly needs the Gospel of our Jesus. Everywhere I look I see it. Everywhere you look we see it. And our meeting that need or failing to meet that need will drastically shape what will come. The world needs this and yet we are huddled up and there are some fears that have taken hold of us and part of it is a fear of not knowing what is next, part of it is a fear of our future and the daunting question: will we make it? Part of it is a fear of all the change that is happening, part of it is a fear of the world out there and part of it is a fear of all we have been through together in such a short time and the cracks that have emerged… Those fears might be new but they are nothing compared to our God and God’s calling. My prayer is that some winds are going to take us right out of this building and onto the streets and force us to stop using our words and start using our hands and feet. Maybe I need to say that again because it needs an amen: to stop using our words and start using our hands and feet. 

And God is calling us this day and it’s going to be new and it’s going to be different, but it’s going to also be good…. And I have great joy about that First Austin because I believe we are going to be the church this city needs.

Last year’s State of the Church was quite ambitious and it was with a bit of fear that I re-read it to see how we did… and the good news is we accomplished quite a bit (as one church member, far wiser than I commented: “Griff I have been here longer than you and just know this, we have moved at a very slow pace and the pace we have moved at the last 2 years finally feels fast, we are finally doing what we have long needed to do.”). We have done a lot of the things we talked about last year, just for a list: 

-   We have redesigned our mission program to highlight local needs and we are engaging                       teams that you selected that will work in these areas

• we have found new ways to communicate 
• we have assembled staff that is working together and is more effective
• We have a new governance structure where decisions can be made clearly and with transparency (and where things are getting done), 
• We paid off our parking garage loan so that our funding model is tithe+revenue (and tithe is still first, our parking garage does not pay for our missions and ministry)
• We have a plan for this facility and some remodeling work that needs to be done, along with how to provide better community space 
• We have tried and are still trying to rework our programming including Midweek and Sunday school
• Most importantly we started and are continuing a conversation about what it means to be a downtown church and being neighbors to our neighbors.

This was, this is good work… don’t discount it’s importance! Sometimes activities like redesigning a missions program or restructuring church governance or choosing a pew and carpet color for the sanctuary have been the final chapter for many churches. We did a good job with this work, even when it hurt. We learned that we can do hard things together, that we can change, and that newness is often life-giving.

And we are showing some very positive trends. I am most excited and I feel the energy of something new and good being born (to quote one of our deacon leaders who recently said: “I feel better about our future than I have in a long time.” I share that feeling, well not the been here a long time, but the feeling good about our future.) The truth is only one thing scares me these days and that is our finances. The truth is we continue to have a cash flow issue and we are going to address that through greater emphasis on stewardship, through greater financial education and transparency and through looking at our budget to ensure that we are doing what God is calling us to do and then inviting you to give to make that dream come true. I know we have the resources needed for the ministry God wants for this church. I don’t know that we have dreamed enough and invited you all to make that dream come true instead of just giving to the same old status quo.

With last years State of the Church, a lot of this good work that we have done has been internal…. And it was so needed.. I compare it to fixing a cracked foundation, it has to be done but it’s not going to be something you want to tell all your friends about, and the good news is that now it is time we turn out attention outward… because God drove the disciples to the streets, God did not bring those on the streets into the upper room.

And there are two things I am thinking in terms of moving forward and our calling: building better community here amongst us and then exploring what it means to be a downtown church again. 

The first involves the community we are bringing people into, our community. And I have to tell you I think we struggle here. We say “all people”, but we must be careful that doesn’t just mean all people that fit the model of who most of us are. We say “all people”, but we can’t limit that to people who want church the way most of us want it. We say “all people”, but we can’t expect their theology and politics and lifestyle to look like most of our theology and politics and lifestyles. We say "all people”, but we cannot retreat to the all people we are most comfortable with (and just note by very definition that is not “all people”- that is a club). One member stopped me last week to ask about our new sign declaring “All People, All People, All People” and asked “But where is the footnote that says as long as you fit the mold of a somewhat progressive person who drives a Prius with a Human Rights Campaign bumpersticker and wears skinny jeans, right pastor?” It stung and it made me think.

One member said recently “we are close as a congregation to becoming that which we claim to disdain- self righteous, polarizing and institutional.” That is a sobering thought. We need to find a way to be “all people”, to be open minded and loving and inclusive, to clearly know what we stand for but to do so in a way that is unifying, affirming and inviting. And that starts within our community.

For the next year I want us to focus on being community to one another, creating a community that folks want to be part of- -  a community that they desire to come to and belong to, a community that might be difficult because it means community with those we don’t know, we don’t agree with and we don’t necessarily like (yet). It’s creating a community that literally exists nowhere else in our world and might be the very agent of healing in our world today.

We are starting this summer with the summer of Bigger Table. Our summer discipleship is based on being this community, creating a community of all people. We are going to spend the summer reading and discussing a book on that very topic, what does it mean to be a bigger table? And, we are going to spend some time asking some hard questions. How diverse is our church? Are we truly including all people? Are we setting the table that Jesus wants us to set? We are going to spend the summer doing community and missional events together, to be the church together, to get to know one another again, to remind ourselves how much we like being together, to meet new people, to learn from one another, and to experience the joys of Christ centered community. 

And then this fall we are going to spend part of our midweek time  and Sunday morning time together exploring how to be “all people” together with some conversations on how to build bridges, how to reach across divisions, how to love someone you disagree with… the hard work of community but the essential work of all people.

And First Austin, some of this community building is going to be really fun but some of it is going to be work. For instance, I think one of the things that often gets in our way is our own pride and it’s time to let go of that… our pride of who we have been can’t get in the way of who we could become That is a community barrier and it’s time we reclaim some humility in being First Austin, because our God does not need our history today, our God needs us being church today. Because God does not need our pride in our “all people” statement (which we do say with such arrogance at times), God needs us struggling to make that a reality. God needs us to say it with humility and celebration. 

And in order to be better community there are some shifts that must happen: the staff has been talking about working on our programs in order to better be community. We are going to continue working on Sunday school classes, finding ways to build community and to  provide quality theological education and spiritual formation, to make Sunday mornings the central event in the life of our community, and to make Sunday mornings something we desire to be part of once again.

We are going to find ways to offer programming in new ways. For instance, we have heard the issue of  horrific traffic and the struggle of working parents to get here on Wednesday nights for Midweek. So in addition to Wednesday evenings, we are adding a children’s music element to Sunday mornings at 9:00 in the fall, so all children have that opportunity. And we are exploring other ways of offering additional opportunities on Sunday morning including a brunch, yoga and parenting seminars.

This fall we are going to spend some time together exploring our identity. We have a series of sermons on words that have traditionally defined us and we are going to look at how we define and possibly reclaim these words today: evangelism, baptist, missional, contemplative, worship, church.We will spend some of our Midweeks looking at those words together and seeing how we reclaim and revive them. This fall we are going to spend some time talking about worship and what feeds our soul in this space and time and how we can improve our worship. 

Two of the key words for this community will be “deepening” and “doing”… we want to find ways that we are providing both of those experiences for us- -  ways to deepen our faith and ways to do our faith. The two essential verbs of faith.

And when it comes to doing we are going to work hard to engage our five central mission areas: Mobile Loaves and Fishes with food runs and with work at Community First Village; the Women’s relocation team that houses women being moved out of domestic abuse situations (to include furnishings, clothing and community and a community of support); Oak Springs and Overton Partners in Education; Habitat for Humanity; and our new neighborhood team where using an Open Table process we provide financial resources and community for those with needs in our city….. and then we are going to partner with a black church and hopefully form a Covenant of Action through the New Baptist Covenant to share some of this work and to do some community building across racial lines. We are going to start sending groups on overseas mission trips to engage our partners in Chengdu, Lebanon, Uganda and possibly soon Bali. That is us doing work as a church community (and your ask this year is to do two missional events with First Austin, which is not a big ask if you think about it… but then we are halfway through the year and have you even done one yet?). This is action and not words.

Here is what I know about this community: once again I can stand here and tell you that as your pastor this is still a church that I would want to be a member of even if I was not pastor because you are good people, you are people that I not only want but need in my life, I am fed and enriched by being community with you, you give me life and strength, I love church with you…. and I think that is something we can offer to our world, a chance to be part of a community that matters and makes a difference.

How do we become a community that cares for one another? How do we make this church a family in which we all feel we deeply belong and that this is our place of identity? How do we make sure as a community we are deepening and doing? These are questions I want us to struggle with this year.

               

The second call is about reclaiming our identity as a downtown church. It appears this has always been a struggle for us. It was not long after we moved on to this property that Bill Denham had to reinforce our call to be a downtown church. In his words: “in moving to our new location we chose to stay downtown rather than flee to the suburbs, because we feel that we have a ministry here.” I wholeheartedly agree with his words. The very DNA of this church is being a downtown church, a church that exists in the very heart of the city, close to our state capital, close to the needy, a center point so that all of Austin can attend. 

And this is not easy because we are currently largely a commuter church (meaning we drive in to church, but don’t forget we drive by a lot of people who live closer and need to be here), it means that our neighbors include those who can’t pay rent and those who pay the highest rent in the city. It means that some of our neighbors are simply those who work downtown and live out where the rest of us all live. We need to reclaim our identity as a downtown church, which is going to mean that we might need to speak in some different tongues on the streets that surround us.

Austin needs a downtown church and we are in a prime position to be that church. For instance, there is an interesting conversation going on with the churches in our area about the marathon. There is a group of them that have gotten together and are going to try and move the marathon, which is practically impossible, or demand the race provide traffic lanes to get us in and out of downtown on race day. The group was shocked when I said we were not going to participate in this effort but instead had reached out to the marathon organizers and already met with them to offer to host water stations, to provide music and to have an evening service that Sunday so that we could help support the marathon… because to me that seems like the very calling of a downtown church: to ask how we can be part of events in our city and not demand they move their events to accommodate us.

We are going to have conversations about how we can reach our neighbors and be a downtown church. Several folks have recently asked if they could help be involved in a campaign to let downtown Austin know about First Austin and we are going to let them lead us in this effort. This will have to include looking at how we let others know about the church, some work on our website and then finding better ways to get our visitors and new members involved in our community, including bringing back First Class.

We are in conversation about starting a homeless choir soon, a choir that will be made up of those who live on the streets that surround us, this will include a weekly meal and rehearsal time that gives us a chance to build relationships with them. 

We are going to continue to find creative ways to use our space…. Several art groups are using our building on a regular basis (we have 5 musical and art groups that use our building weekly, as well as 6 theater groups including our own Trinity Street Players who use our black box, our theater is booked solid for the next year) . We want to find ways to offer more communal space for art groups, rehearsal space, yoga space, meeting space, day school and shared office space for non-profits. We are in conversation with Mobile Loaves and Fishes about building their first downtown commissary here on our property, a place they can provide employment for those who can’t find it in Austin and a place that would allows us to truly engage our neighbor. We are talking about new and creative ways we could use our parking garage to continue to revitalize our very neighborhood. We have so much space to use to help our city. Austin itself is running out of space and between our facility and Still Waters (where we have hosted everything from yoga retreats to family reunions and are booked solid), this is a resource we have to provide. 

My dream, the calling I feel for this church right now is this: It’s about building a church that people want to attend… a few weeks ago one of our members started a rather lively conversation on facebook about why Sunday mornings don’t seem to matter anymore… many of you weighed in and I paid careful and close attention to what you said.. and here was my response:

“In response to why Sundays have become optional:  I understand busy schedules and working parents and a million things going on at all times... I understand the tension between church being a prophetic place that calls us to bring about God's kingdom in the world and being a place of restoration (one of the lines I say to every visitor: use this time to sit and heal and rest as long as needed or to jump in and do as quick as you need, church is for both).... I very much understand the need for Sunday morning community (which is so very important).... I understand feeling so drained all the time (by the world we are living in, by the endless volunteer opportunities, by just regular schedules).... I keep coming back to why I am here (beside the obvious) and it's about needing to be surrounded by folks who have been on this faith journey longer than I have and can remind me it matters, it's about seeing friends that are more like family, it's about the times I struggle to believe but can walk into a sanctuary where others are doing that hard work and carrying me that week, it's about reminding myself my views and the way I see the world are not the only ways, it's seeing folks who I know if I hit the end of my rope that week that can carry me, it's reminding myself we are part of a bigger story (and our role matters both so much more and so much less than we often think).... as pastor I want to find a way to remind everyone you can come here and rest as needed and get as involved as you desire (a place of being and doing, deepening and changing), to find a way not to guilt people into being here (which I think is part of the tradition we are letting go) but to create a place that folks want to be, where they find something that restores and calls them….”

I believe that is the church our world needs…. For me it’s a church that does a few things well: loves God and loves others, includes all people, offers an intelligent faith journey and offers a community of support and works to bring about God’s kingdom. I think we have this. Some of it needs a bit of work, but I deeply believe it’s life giving and affirming work.

As  I have sat with this year’s State of the Church, I keep looking it over and noticing that I am missing so many of the directives of last year. Last year read more like a to-do list and this year reads more like a mess of thoughts, and I think I am okay with that because it seems appropriate to where we are… to go back to the beginning and something I have said throughout… I believe something great is being born here among us and we are seeing that vision…

Birth is messy and complicated and hard. I know that during labor, when new life was coming, the last thing a mother needs is someone giving her a to do list of things we have to do right now, of directives. Instead what is needed is a steady comforting presence and a vision of more. 

We are in a time of birthing (the middle place, the in between, the threshold, the place of becoming)…. We are in what Richard Rohr calls liminal space, hear his words:

“To get out of this unending cycle, we have to allow ourselves to be drawn into sacred space, into liminal space. All transformation takes place here. We have to allow ourselves to be drawn out of “business as usual” and remain patiently on the “threshold” where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible. It’s the realm where God can best get at us because our false certitudes are finally out of the way. This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy. The threshold is God’s waiting room. Here we are taught openness and patience as we come to expect an appointment with the divine Doctor.

Some native peoples call liminal space “crazy time.” I believe that the unique and necessary function of religion is to lead us into this crazy, liminal time. Instead, religion has largely become a confirmation of the status quo and business as usual. Religion should lead us into sacred space where deconstruction of the old “normal” can occur. Much of my criticism of religion comes about when I see it not only affirming the system of normalcy but teaching folks how to live there comfortably. Cheap religion teaches us how to live contentedly in a sick world, just as poor therapy teaches us how to accommodate ourselves to a sometimes small world based on power, prestige, and possessions. A good therapist and a good minister will always open up larger vistas for you, which are by definition risky, instead of just “rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic.”

First Austin, this is our call: a downtown church open to all people that engages hearts, hands and minds, that is about deepening and doing, a church where people can belong and be part of good work  And we need you with all your energy to help us towards that goal, each of you here matters to this calling. Which might mean this Pentecost we need the winds of the Spirit to renew you and the love you have for this place, your commitment to this church, what you give to this church… because what we are called to birth right now is nothing small and it takes all of us. 

It’s Pentecost, and it’s not just a birthday celebration but it’s also a big day of adjustment because by the end of the day the disciples did not find themselves huddled in an upper room any longer but out on the streets doing the work of God and Kingdom building, building the beautiful city and preaching the Gospel of Jesus, which has always been and always will be our primary call as a church, the Gospel of Jesus Christ… and they did not find themselves doing it alone, they did it because God was behind the work, supporting and empowering them… and maybe today it’s time we hear a fresh wind calling us out… because the world is still waiting for us to go out and to invite them in, to be community here so we can be community there, to provide the church that God needs in order to do God’s work in the world today… and to be reminded that God is behind us, supporting and empowering us.

To build the beautiful city that we all know we can be and we can build. Amen and Amen.