February 5 - An Evolutionary Community

February 5, 2012               An Evolutionary Community

Anchor: We are a community of Artistic, Evolutionary, Revolutionary Christians

Frame: How are we an evolving community? Are we ready for evolution?

Thread: Deep in Our Hearts, Never Place a Period

Matthew 13:31-33

Jesus presented another parable to the crowds: “The kin-dom of heaven is like the mustard seed which a farmer sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all—it becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come to perch in its branches.”

Jesus offered them still another parable: “The kin-dom of heaven is like the yeast a baker took and mixed in with three measures of flour until it was leavened all through.”

The images that Jesus chose to describe god’s activity in the world are not static. They are images of life and growth. The kin-dom of heaven is like a growing mustard seed, starting tiny but growing and growing until evolves past a shrub and becomes a tree. The kin-dom of heaven is like the living yeast that leavens the flour, making it rise and rise. Jesus grew up in a rural setting and turned to agrarian images that he and his audience knew thoroughly. And just as they knew that the needs of life grew like grain and fruit, Jesus showed that God’s activity involved growth, too.

If we believe that in some way we embody a corner of God’s kin-dom, then we too should expect that we are growing and evolving. We are that mustard plant, the yeast leavening the world around us. Do we really expect that we are evolving as a faith community? The question facing SCUCC is not if we are evolving but in what ways are we evolving?

It is my hope and belief that we have a perspective that others are looking for. There is no reason that our congregation cannot grow.  I believe we can double, maybe even triple in size. I am not saying that we need to rival the Crystal Cathedral. But in order to grow into saying that we A-R-E Christians (artistic, revolutionary, evolutionary), we need to grow. I can’t believe that the people already here at SCUCC are the only people in our area that are seeking spiritual freedom, nurture, and passion. That evolution is uncharted, because as people find us and join us on the journey, they will become a part of our character. We will continue to evolve.

Evolution is a funny thing. It doesn’t go as planned. It goes as life needs it to go. A fish crawls on land and develops lungs. And legs. A few millions years and it becomes T-Rex. A few million more years and T-Rex becomes Foghorn Leghorn. We have no idea how today’s chickens, still carrying the recombinant DNA of its T-Rex ancestors, may yet evolve. Our DNA comes from the Pilgrims, from Abolitionists, from Suffrage activists. But what we will yet be is still open to us. We will evolve as life needs us to grow. Taking some time to imagine ourselves as a congregation in ten or twenty or a hundred years might be a great exercise of creative prayer.

A video of how people become a part of a movement is one from a music festival where one guy starts a goofy dance, and in a few minutes a whole crowd joins him. You can see it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8z7f7a2Pk&feature=related

It’s a good parable about welcoming others into your joy. For us, it’s all about inviting new people to join our dance.

            Another look at evolution would be to go back to original concept drawings of our campus. That vision of the future never developed, but other things have grown. We could look at a bunch of old “life in the future” pictures (you know, with flying cars and ray guns) and then flash on the concept drawing (it kind of looks like that old future vision!). We could do a skit about a message from the future, telling us now how to get ready.

            I’m also thinking of giving away some kind of invitations, so that our people can invite other to join us on this A-R-E adventure.

            A side thought, back on the dinosaur-evolution mode: Many today think denominations (including the UCC) are dinosaurs and on their way to extinction. But the dinosaurs never completely disappeared. They evolved. The huge, plodding, slow-to-react dinosaurs did die off, but the soaring, fast-to-change-direction smaller but more agile dinosaurs exist today. We call them eagles and sparrows and nightingales. At SCUCC, we are in the process of exchanging our scales for feathers.