I preached this sermon to St. Andrew's United Church on January 27, 2008 

Families are endlessly interesting. What makes them so interesting is not so much that families come in all shapes and sizes, forms, styles, personalities, numbers from one to 25. But it is the things themselves that happen in families that make them so endlessly interesting. Every birth, every birthday, every first day of school, every high school graduation, every meal at the dinner table, every illness, every death, every job, every falling in love, every marriage, every leaving home, every coming back home, every skating, curling, baseball tournament and every family squabble make families so very interesting. There is never a dull moment when you think of all the things that go on in families, good and bad.

Congregations are endlessly interesting. All those things that can go on in congregations. Every baptism, every wedding, every funeral, every church meeting, every worship service, every disagreement, every prayer, every song, every conversion, every member that leaves, every member who returns. You name it good and bad, congregations are endlessly interesting.

Something interesting is going on in the Church in Corinth too. We read a letter that starts out describing how Choe has reported to Paul that the congregation in Corinth is falling apart. They’re having family arguments in Corinth and they’re all taking sides saying, “Paul is the one to follow. Afterall he baptized some important people.”  “No!. Apollos is such an eloquent speaker. He’s the one to follow.” “Oh, no Cephas has got the best gift for outreach. He’s our man.” “Oh no the Lutherans have it all together. They’re the ones to follow.” “Oh no the Anglicans know how to worship. They’re the ones.” And it’s interesting that Jesus is one of the choices in the shopping mall to choose from. Paul is writing this letter to the church from Ephesus which is quite a ways from Corinth and every time I read this letter from Paul I keep hearing Paul say, “Don’t make me come down there!”

So the church is losing its centre and falling apart into sections. And I thought at the beginning of the week that I was going to talk about conflict in our own church family. And as the week progressed I kept hearing myself comment on the text I was reading saying things like, “We’re not like that here at St. Andrew’s United Church. We’re not falling apart and taking sides.” I haven’t heard an argument yet. “I’ve met some really, really nice people and all the people of Valley Pastoral Charge in the three churches look to me like they’re working hard at getting along and caring for each other, and all that.

So conflict? Maybe, but I haven’t experienced it.

If you read my Annual Report you might come to the conclusion that we’re still in the Honeymoon Period. And I think in many ways we are. And I hope and pray that our Honeymoon period continues on into the years and gives us a solid beginning that we can fall back on in case we do fall apart. But I’m not that naïve to think that there’s no conflict here. I said this once before in my very first sermon in July, “There’s no conflict in the ideal church, but there is conflict in the healthy church.” Conflict exists whenever two or more ideas are present at the same time. I say this and you say that. He says that and she says this. Someone said the church is not where you will have all  your questions answered but where you will have all your answers questioned. That’s conflict too. You folks here at St. Andrew’s United Church have shared far too much life together to not have had disagreements. My Spiritual Director in Vancouver would say to me at times that we have Henny Penny days: and cry out “The sky is falling. The sky is falling!” Part of conflict is that too. Some of us panic when there’s conflict. But conflict can be an opportunity for change that needs to happen and needs to be taken prayerfully and seriously. I know of a little bit of the work that has gone on at Valley around the Contemporary Hymn that has been…well….work….your work. So congregations are endlessly interesting. One way of looking at congregations is seeing them on a journey. I offer two images of this. See if one speaks to you more than the other.

The Principle of Vancouver School of Theology, Wendy Fletcher tells this story. Her 12-year-old daughter Anna came to the dinner table one day and paused before she sat down and said, “You know I have just realized that whenever I make a choice in life it changes the world.  What I decide matters. Anna’s mother marvelled at  her daughter’s maturity and insight. Then Anna sat down and with a worried look on her face she looked up at her mother and said, “What if I make a mistake? What if I choose the wrong thing?” And her mother told this story. All around us are footsteps going in all directions. Our job is to choose which one to step onto. If it holds you , then you feel its support and you move on. If after you have stepped onto the next footstep you find yourselves sinking into water even up to your neck you needn’t worry because God’s grace will bring you back onto dry land and you can choose again. This is the endlessly interesting journey we are on. We try to choose wisely and that happens but sometimes our choices cause us to sink. It is at those 'failing' times that we courageously fail forward into God's arms. Courage (coeur is french for heart) means to follow your heart. It does not mean to not be afraid. It means to follow your heart even if you are afraid. [this story is told with permission from Wendy].

Here is another story that shows this endlessly interesting journey we are on. Thomas Long writes it in his book, "Beyond the Worship Wars". He describes a breakfast-in-bed that he and his brother decided to surprise their mother on Mother’s Day with. They were thoroughly inexperienced in the kitchen. But he says, “How hard can it be to scramble eggs, fry bacon, and crack open a can of ready-made biscuits.” They knocked on their bedroom door and entered with two glasses of orange juice, a freshly picked rose, the Sunday paper, and a cheery greeting: “Happy mother’s Day! and told them to just stay in bed, relax and read the paper. Breakfast was on the way. They played along nicely, and began to read the paper. And they ignored the sounds from the kitchen of glass shattering and grease fires being extinguished. In due time Thomas and his brother appeared triumphantly at the bedside holding steaming plates of ten-minute eggs, carbonized bacon and biscuits that would challenge an apprentice stonemason. It was, the parents said, the most delicious breakfast they had ever eaten.

Thom's metaphor is a metaphor for excellence in worship. At its best worship is always the work of amateurs, people who do it for love, kids in the kitchen overcooking the prayers, sermons that are barely finished, hymns sung through tired voices, and stumbling clumsily into and out of words of worship like potholes that lead us through the service to a final commissioning and blessing. God says those are the most wonderful worship services. Like children filled with adoration, lost in wonder, love and praise carrying our ineptly cooked but lovingly prepared liturgical breakfast. THIS is the very power of God.

We here at St. Andrew’s United Church are not a volunteer group, or a social organization, or a country club. We are called to be the church warts and all. We are a church family on a journey, an endlessly interesting family on the move. Every time there is a baptism this congregation tells the story of our faith again. Every time there is a wedding this congregation celebrates faith in God’s love that joins two people in marriage.  Every time there is a death we celebrate the life we were able to share with a person. These are the things along the way. And if we remember our baptism in which we promised to do our best to be faithful then God pulls us forward from our failings and moves us on.

We are a church family on the move in which everybody in the family acts faithfully with God to help everyone else in the family be and become the Body of Christ. We find out that the purpose of the journey is the journey itself. We find out, like the theologian Simone Weil declares, The way to heaven is heaven. This endlessly interesting journey--good or bad--IS the way to heaven. ALL the way to heaven.