Tents to Castles

This year the ministry staff at Westhill elected to allow the theme for 2012 to encapsulate the new vision we have been moving toward – “Experience Life on the Hill.” This vision has turned toward the Spirit as the source of movement in body life and personal life, and acknowledges to truly embrace the work of the Sprit there must be receptivity to God’s will. I know this should be a given. If we are believers it means we are open to God. But, the reality is tents of sojourners become the castles of the captive. We become comfortable with the surroundings of our faith and lose sight of the role of searching and uncertainty. Yet, it was this searching and uncertainty leading to the sojourning faith with which we awoke each morning filled with the vitality of life. Can you still feel the air filling the lungs? Some of us can, but for others it is a foreign language. All we have known has been the ceramic tile and hardwood floors of the settled.

A tenet of the Restoration movement of which we claim a history, has been to value searching for truth and embracing the important. It is not uncommon for someone to approach me after a sermon and say, “I’ve never heard that preached in a Church of Christ before.” They intend it in a complimentary not pejorative sense so no offense taken, but I’m not always sure what they mean. It happened last Sunday after a sermon on giving. We’re good on giving in Churches of Christ right? We know how to strike the right balance between silence and appeal. Again I’m not exactly sure what was meant, but I know it tapped into a faith value, and was rooted in Scripture, at least in their opinion and certainly mine; which they were thrilled to hear proclaimed from my pulpit, a Church of Christ pulpit.

Truth is I don’t go into the week looking to speak a word to impress people it came from my pulpit! I go into each week searching for a word from God for the people. Short of sincerity such an ambitious statement should be heard with arrogance I suppose, but for me it is true. I’m not looking to excuse behavior I’m looking to be shaped by the identity of Christ, as I speak and serve as a voice in God’s hands to call others into a deeper relationship with God. My finding is such discovery-preaching, or to flip the analogy to the hearer and think in terms of discovery-hearing tends to call people out of their castles and back into tents. We like the idea of sojourning when thinking of the ultimate destiny relative to the here and now, but have less affection if it means actually trading in the tile and wood. Imagine a church filled with people who have made this trade. Imagine what body life would be like. Imagine worship! Imagine ministry! Imagine its impact on the community. Come “Experience Life on the Hill” with those who live in tents not clinging to their castles.