Sharing our Story

Looking at the multi-faceted disciple, Peter, and Baptism reminds me that our stories, spiritually, are like that of birth and growth of children. We come to new life in Jesus Christ and taste of the goodness of God. 

Hopefully we continue to long for that spiritual food that God gives so freely so that we might continue to grow spiritually. We are never fully grown spiritually. We never reach our potential in experiencing what God is willing to give us. We never really reach a place where we are "done."

God chose us as God's people, Peter says, so "we may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light." 

This reminds me of an old Jewish question and answer, "Why did God create people?" "Because God loves stories." It is not simply that God needs someone to talk to. It is because God needs someone to recall, relate and proclaim the wonders of what God has done in the creation and is willing to do in the lives of people. 

Peter is convinced that the people of God can show forth the goodness of God under the most trying circumstances. We have to keep reminding ourselves of that reality especially in Lent. 

Our church is called to be a safe haven, a refuge, a place of dignity and identity for those who seek a church home, with beliefs, stories, sufferings, and joys sunk deep into the foundations of our shared experience. We have it backwards if our desire to welcome people is in order to increase our membership. 

Welcoming is who we are and have always been. Yes, we may be a community capable of risking hospitality, but will we be a community where it is safe for people to share their story, a community in which we continually share our own story of joys, trials, and everything in between?

The story of Jesus and Stephen, the first martyr, have a common thread in this regard: success does not look like converting other people to our way of thinking; success is not having the oldest or biggest church in town; success is marked by a people who tell the truth so clearly, so abundantly in word and deed, that some want may want to silence their voices.

Today we will hear the "story" of one in our midst who is in the process of discerning a call from God. Like Sarah and Abraham, we often here the call as "Go" without specific directions as to where and how. May we honor each other's stories without the need to edit, to redirect; may we listen deeply with compassion and hear God's own call to share our story and to "go" in to the world with the light of Christ.