Connection Matters

Yes, God is with us! The celebration of Christmas declares truth, power, and life changing relationship. The waiting period is over and here we are. “The Kin_dom of God is upon you”. These realities are not impotent, neutral declarations that line the walls of our busy lives. These realities are daring, uncomfortable invitations to go deeper in our relationship with God. To do this, we need to notice the power that is God with us. Furthermore, we need to stop gawking in paralyzed amazement at this power and find a connection point. In this faithful endeavor we find the truth – connection matters.

Last week our congregation was invited into many paths of engagement. These are spiritual practices. I want to define a spiritual practice as that which requires intent, focuses our attention on the power that is Holy/wholly not our own, and stretches us to a new way of being open to that life changing power – God. In other words, spiritual practice is connection. I’m certain that you can apprehend that amazing power as a spectacle to see is one thing, and amazing power that one is connected to is another thing all together.

You were given some tools.  These are very practical and useful; perfect for the journey that we are going to travel together. We have a clear path to goal setting, a system to sustain our effort – we partner with one another for encouragement, prayer, and accountability. We have been given testimonies about how this system has been effective for others in our community. Finally, we have been invited to take our own place at the table in this banquet of spiritual practice. I hope the invitation to connection that was made on January 4^th is still challenging you to do something new this year; something that stretches you and makes a connection. (We will keep these Goal setting cards available in the office and the sanctuary throughout this sermon series.)

I realize that it is possible for us to see this invitation as off-putting. After all, we demonstrated spiritual practice as the very thing we commit to in our baptismal vows – prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We demonstrated ideal examples of these spiritual practices – 10% tithing, 20 hours of service in a month, 30 minutes of study and devotion every day, 40 Sundays in worship, 50 captured opportunities to share our faith with someone new. Anyone of these ideals can feel daunting. I have not yet met the person that would not feel stretched by this list of potential practices. And worse, we asked for people to make a commitment and turn them in on the spot.  It was a challenging day in church and there are many feelings we get from being challenged; energized, overwhelmed, excited, dreading failure, empowered , & suspicious, just to name a few.

There is nothing wrong with any of these feelings. We are who we are and our feelings will be our own natural response to the challenge that is in front of us. Own them, work with them, talk to someone about them, and use them to find your path to making a connection with this amazing power. God uses all things for good in the lives of the faithful. All things.

I also realize that building trust is important in a challenge. To that end, I want you to know that the subject of you, your goals, and your dedication to spiritual practice is never a topic of conversation about you. I will never be asking leadership to account for the spiritual practice lives of the congregation. I will never ask your accountability partner for an update on your performance. I will never ask you for a report on someone else. I am open to talking about spiritual practices of course (this would be thrilling to me): but these conversations will always be in the first person – me talking to you about your spiritual practice journey, because you want to talk about it.

 

So why turn in cards and why ask for a partner to whom you would share your spiritual practice story? These are opportunities for each one of us to experience love and support from our church community. This is also a way for you to serve as a loving partner for someone else in your church family. In other words, this is a way to make connections.  Connections matter.

 As we continue through the next six weeks, I will be talking about the amazing power revealed in God with us. We are offering more than an intellectual examination of this power. We are offering connection, and we know for sure that people who take the time to make this connection will never be the same.  I myself am not really here to understand the power of God (I am not even sure this is possible). I am eager to experience the power of God. Isn’t a God who is willing to become flesh and dwell among us making this invitation plain? God has obviously sought us out so that we might experience the life changing power of God’s divine love.  I submit that this is because God believes connection matters. What are we going to do with this invitation?