The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost --- 12 June 2016

Today we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of St. John's. It was not the exact day and we had to move fast to get this planned. Special readings were chosen and Pr. Riitta Hepomaki of the Synod staff was with us for the celebration.

FIRST READING – 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. He said, ‘O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart…

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Have regard to your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day towards this house, the place of which you said, “My name shall be there”, that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays towards this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling-place; heed and forgive.

SECOND READING – 1 Peter 2:4-6, 9-10

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
   Once you were not a people,
     but now you are God’s people;
   once you had not received mercy,
     but now you have received mercy.

GOSPEL – John 4: 5-9, 19-26

So (Jesus) came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

…like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

·        We’ve all know that there are buildings of wood and brick and steel and concrete. Some are classics of design. Others are broken down and just plain ugly. Some are simple and some are ornate. Some are rectangular while some are round. There are others of even odder shapes. Such buildings are built for many reasons and purposes. The ones we are taking about today all have one thing in common: we call them “churches.” There are so many different buildings for so many congregations. There are at least 13 different Christian denominations represented here in Aylmer alone! And some of the world’s largest Christian groups are not represented.

·        Today we celebrate 70 years of this house. I’m not talking about the building in our case since this building is not that old. This building was built to house a congregation of Christians, to serve as a central place where they could worship together in a way they’d know for many years.

·        The building has changed. Portions have been added, re-done, and improved… or not. Buildings always need something – heat, hydro, a roof, some shade.

·        But a building is just a building. It is sad to say that in a number of cases, some church buildings have been used as stables, as warehouses, as granaries, as fortresses, and even as private homes.

·        This building – and don’t doubt that your pastor likes this building – was not built to just take up space. It was built to house a congregation. If this congregation did not exist, there’d be an apartment building, or a used car lot, or a Giant Tiger here on this corner. Without a congregation, a “church” is an empty building and a headache for the Bishop and the Synod. (Right?)

·        This building is not St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. This building is where St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church meets… to pray and listen and speak and worship and learn and teach and gather and eat sausages and taco salad and sauerkraut and Irish soda bread and some of the best desserts I’ve ever had.

·        THIS is not the church. WE are the church. If – God forbid – something would happen to this building, we would still be the church of St. John in Aylmer, no matter where we gathered to worship. Before this building was built, the congregation of St. John’s began and it worshiped elsewhere.

·        All this shows that the author of the letter attributed to Peter was right: We are a house of living stones, built to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

·        The letter says we are to be a spiritual house. This may be invisible and intangible, but it is none-the-less real. Often the most real things in our lives are invisible and intangible – like our knowledge, our skills, our ideas, our loves.

·        Our spiritual house is one without walls because we don’t want to exclude anyone.

·        Our spiritual house is one without walls because the Spirit will not be limited by any borders we might draw.

·        Our spiritual house is one without walls because our house reaches into the past for wisdom and inspiration and reaches into the future for hope and mission.

·        Our spiritual house is one without walls because walls can be used to keep things in as much as keep things out. What we have in Jesus Christ is to be shared with all we may know and meet. Our light comes from outside of us, just like light through the windows. We then take the light with us as we go back to our usual. What we receive on Sunday becomes our mission on Monday. (That’s why the acolyte carries the lighted taper out at the end of the service; God’s light goes out with all of us.)

·        There is something of vital importance I’ve left until now. The author of the 1^st letter of Peter says like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house… Think about it a moment. The building of a spiritual house or the establishment of a congregational community is not our doing. We are reminded that what we have become, what we are, and what we will be is the work of God through Jesus Christ in the Spirit. It is through the power of God and the will of God that we are what we are. All that we have accomplished in the past 70 years has been by the grace of God, the grace that has led us and inspired us to pray and work hard.

·        If nothing else, this verse alone reminds us that today is not a day of self-congratulations, but a day of thanksgiving for what God has done for us and through us. Aylmer has been somehow changed by the presence of this congregation, just as we have been changed by the grace of God.

·        Every day is a historic day and today is special because we have gathered to pray, worship, and remember. We’ve gathered to enjoy each other’s company, and to celebrate and give thanks for the history that is ours.

·        Today is Sunday and tomorrow is another Monday. Our mission continues then and in every historic day after that. In the grace of God, we need to know our history, celebrate our history, and build on our history. The one thing we cannot do is live in our history. That would be looking at the shadows behind us. It’s worth doing from time to time – like today – but the light is ahead of us. That is where we are going and we’re going there together.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.