First Sunday in Lent 2013

Here is Sunday's sermon as requested:

http://sacredspaces2004.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/sacred-spaces-326-jesus-in-the-desert-have-a-good-lenten-journey/

We are back in Lent (again, weren’t we just here?).  A time the church observes every year and one we treat less like a joy and more like a flu shot. 

We understand that Lent is necessary, that it's good for us in much the same way as Brussel sprouts or spinach might be.  

A recent twitter chat held by the Huffington Post made it clear that not only are most of us who say we observe Lent unable to explain it, we have limited understanding of why we observe it. We still do not understand it.

We take part in it by adding spiritual disciplines to our routines or giving things up without looking at the reason behind our actions. We do these things sometimes for no other reason than that we have always done it. 

We add a new bible study; attend Morning Prayer, increase our time in personal prayer.  We cut out white sugar, caffeine, or red meat.  We tell others we to do these things for forty days to prepare ourselves for the celebration of the resurrection.

To an outsider it likely seems more like a diet or preparation for a spiritual marathon.  If we don't have a good explanation for our Lenten behaviors, if we don't seem to fully understand the focus of the season, how meaningful is what we do?

Let’s look at the words shared on Ash Wednesday in the Book of Common Prayer (page 264): 

 The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.

Lent is then a time to prepare for Easter according to our traditions.  Through self examination and spiritual disciplines we prepare for Easter. 

In the Revised Common Lectionary every first Sunday of Lent we travel with Jesus into the desert after his baptism by John.  This is to remind us of other biblical retreats, yet it is different from the retreats of Moses, Elijah, and the Israelites.  The forty days Jesus spends in the desert follows the tradition that taught that it takes forty days for one to hear from God.  Yet Jesus has already heard God, in fact is God, so why retreat into the desert?  Jesus knows already God intimately.

Is it about his interaction with the tempter?  In this time he is both fully man and fully divine.  None of the temptations presented to Jesus are outside the realm of his power.  At any time he could have left the wilderness, could have filled his belly, changed his circumstances.  Yet he stayed until the “testing” was over.  Why? 

Perhaps the lesson for us today has less to do with what we do during Lent and more to do with why we observe Lent.  Paul’s words have been used as license for cheap grace….  if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If that is all it takes, there is no need to observe a holy Lent.  The work is done, isn’t it?

I go back again to the tempter.  If we think we need do nothing at all, he has won.  We are not consumers of Lent though, rather we are children of God in need of mending. 

I believe that is why we are called into a holy Lent.  To remove those distractions, those temptations, those pitfalls that we and our society place in the way of our relationship with God. 

This time with Jesus in the desert is more about remembering that on our own we will never win the battle.  Just as Jesus waited there in that seemingly barren place, so too are we called to wait with God.

We are children of God who win the battle only as we surrender our wills, our hearts, and our souls to the One who loves us unconditionally.  Our external actions are not those that count during Lent; our motivations and intentions are what matter.  Not human affirmation, but rather those things we do that glorify God. 

That is how we experience a holy Lent.  This time in the desert is the time to meet the tempter and our temptations and surrender those things that take our eyes off of the God who loves us in spite of those obstacles we let fall in the way.

So whether we wore ashes all day last Wednesday, wiped them off as soon as we got to the car, or never had ashes imposed, a holy Lent is a time about the heart, not action.  It is not about the bible study, the lack of red meat; it is about a heart set toward God.

Stop and listen, let go the rush and noise.

Let all that you are wait quietly before God.

Let the busyness of your body rest,

Let the worries of your mind rest,

Let the doubts of your heart rest.

Hear God's call to holiness.

Allow the Spirit to transform and recreate,

Busyness into peace,

Worry into trust,

Doubt into hope.

Let all that is within you rest and find God.

(c) Christine Sine http://godspace.wordpress.com/  (used with permission)

Last Sunday After Epiphany

I have not been posting my sermons 

for many reasons.  

Today i had requests to post, 

so here it is...

A time set apart.  On a mountain.  With God.  It does something to and for a person.  The Celtic Christians call such places and times “thin.”  Places and moments the distance between heaven and earth is so thin you can almost reach out and touch heaven.

This morning we see Moses as he comes down from Mount Sinai.  He has been with God.  As he comes from the mountain, his face is glowing from being in the presence of God.  Aaron and the Israelites are afraid and hesitate to come near him.  Moses places a veil over his face, a covering signifying he is no longer in the presence of God. 

This is the Moses who sees a burning bush and argues with God about going to pharaoh and leading his people out of bondage.  He says he can’t speak well.  God still wants Moses.  God gives Moses a fancy stick and his brother Aaron as a spokesperson.  Remember the end of the story?  Today we remember what happens when Moses allows his time with God to transform him and his people.  Moses has been to a thin place.

Moses did not want to be a leader, yet he became one of the father’s of our faith and his stories are preserved for all time.  A man who tried to run from God, a man who then lets himself be transformed by God.  On a mountain, in a thin place.

Jesus heads up a mountain with Peter, John, and James.  Suddenly Jesus’ face changes and his clothes become white.  Moses and Elijah appear. Peter is so astounded by what he is seeing comes up with a plan to build houses for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  Perhaps hoping to capture this thin place for all time.  Then a cloud covers them and they become afraid.  In the cloud they hear, “this is my son, my chosen, listen to him.”  

We often focus on Jesus when we talk about the transfiguration and what happens to him in this thin place, but for now, let us look at Peter, James, and John.  In this time on the mountain they are transformed by God.  They are in a thin place that day.  These ordinary men who go on to do great things.  They are by no means perfect, one will even deny Jesus later, yet in this thin place, God transforms them.

       

Gathered with our bishop and canon and other clergy on a holy mountain I was blessed to be in a thin place this week.  One many of you know well.  In our time together we reflected on letting the veil between us and God be lifted. 

We looked at how we make a place thick….

how we block God from our presence…

how we so fill our time with “stuff” that the barrier between heaven and earth becomes a place so thick we can no longer get to the other side. 

Unlike Moses and his veil, we put things between ourselves and God in the guise of being in control and being productive.

Our speaker, Canon Peter Doll, called these our “default settings.”  Those things we hold onto that place barriers between God and ourselves.  We get so good at moving to these default settings that we lose sight of the holy.  We allow ourselves to be transformed by the world rather than by God.

Yet God continues to beckon us from the other side of that veil.  God continues to reach out to each of us.  Here in this place, we are able to meet God in one another, at this table, in our prayers, and even in our silence. 

In those times, do we allow God to transform us? 

Do we allow ourselves to step into that thin place?  That place where for just a moment the veil drops and we are once again in God’s presence?

Soon we head from the time of Immanuel, God with us, into a season of reflection.  A time set aside to go into the desert with Jesus.  A place we often fear and yet truly a thin place.

Will we allow ourselves to be in God’s presence in this season of Lent?  To let the veil drop?  To let God become our default setting once more?

One of the ways we allow a place to become thin is the journey we take, the pilgrimage.  A place is made holy because the people of God make it holy.  We have times we get so caught up in busy-ness that we forget we come to holy places and there we are able to journey.  Journeys with God that can take place right where we are…

through bible study

prayer

quiet time

physical acts that quiet our minds

and in many other ways.

This life of faith is a journey.  A journey back to God.  A journey to thin places.  Those places we experience God.  Those places we let God transform us.  The God who If we do not seek, we are unlikely to find.

As we enter lent we are given the perfect time to enter a journey back to God.  A time to voluntarily go into exile from those things that place barriers in our hearts and lives.  Barriers between God and ourselves.

My brothers and sisters, will you journey with me into the cloud of unknowing?  To the mountain to be with God?  To return again to our default setting that allows God to work in and through us? 

In this season to come, will you allow God to transform us?  To remember again how to dream dreams of God?  To show our love for God by resuming our mission to love God, God’s creation, and our neighbors?

Stop and listen, let go the rush and noise.

Let all that you are wait quietly before God.

Let the busyness of your body rest,

Let the worries of your mind rest,

Let the doubts of your heart rest.

Hear God's call to holiness.

Allow the Spirit to transform and recreate,

Busyness into peace,

Worry into trust,

Doubt into hope.

Let all that is within you rest and find God.

(c) Christine Sine http://godspace.wordpress.com/  (used with permission)

Advent 1

I'm going to take a break during Advent and share about the season rather than my usual posts.  Here are some pieces from my sermon on the First Sunday of Advent:

My third favorite day of each year is the one when I get my new calendar.  It is full of hopes and dreams.  Empty of things left undone and those done in error.  It is a chance to pray for things to come, some known, yet most unknown.  It is also a chance to dream about possibilities and new ways for God to move in the new year...

It is a time to look back at a portion of our salvation story, a chance to look back to the first coming of Jesus to earth.   How can you not love such a beautiful story?  A story that gives hope.  Babies are so full of hope.  And that is how our savior came.  As a baby.  In a manger. 

It is also a season in which we look around to see those ways Jesus is breaking into our present.  We have been blessed so abundantly and we experience breath taking moments when Jesus reaches in and touches our every day experiences.  When Jesus with skin on is found in those around us.  Jesus is present here.  Now.

We also look to when Jesus will come again.  We anticipate Jesus’ second coming.  This is the part of our story we don’t quite yet know...

Don’t shy away from all this season offers, the holy and even the not so holy.  It is the season the world looks to Christmas, often in a material way.  A natural time for us to make all we do holy as we share about the first gift that changes everything.  That wee little babe in the manger who will climb on a cross and come to us again.

To fully experience this season and to share its meaning with those who may have forgotten it or those who may not have experienced it before is a gift as well.  It is with hope and anticipation we remember who we are celebrating and the gift we are celebrating. 

 

We are able to celebrate that gift as we take a deep breath in the middle of the hustle and bustle of this time and remember to thank God for the gift found in a manger, that gift in the hands and heart of Jesus found in those around us, and the gift we still wait for. 

 

As we bring joy to others, not just with presents but in our presence, we share the true meaning of this season.  We are able to do that as we decorate, shop, wrap, and bake.  These acts become a living prayer.  They can become a chance to pray for those we love, for our world, and for the needs of others.  

 

This is a season the world is more open to our salvation story and we have the gift of sharing it with those around us.  How we do this may be different...

 

This is a season to pursue Jesus, the Savior who came to us in a humble manger, who comes to us today, and the one who will come again.  A savior that calls us to remember his first coming, seek his presence with us now, and anticipate his coming again.

 

May it be for you a season of remembering, seeing, and anticipating the possibility of God moving in and among us and our world.

Miracles - Proper 12B

Posted by request....

The fact that the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels, and that   Matthew and Mark each tell it twice lets us know that this is important to our salvation story.  It was also popular in the early church because of its hint to the Eucharist. 

Remember this was a big crowd.  The text speaks of 5000 men.  The text omits the children running around, the wives and daughters along for the day.  This count includes just the men.  That is a whole lot of people to feed.  It is going to take a lot of bread to feed this crowd.  The estimated cost was roughly equal to six month’s wages. 

Jesus knows what he is going to do, yet he tests Philip when he asks him where they are going to buy bread.  Jesus wants to know if Phillip realizes this is not about feeding bread, but about the identity of Christ.  Philip does not.  This disciple of Jesus sees this is a practical question, he forgets who Jesus is.  He focuses on the worldly, the practical, rather than the mystery of the holy one.  Phillip even questions where they will get enough money to buy the bread.

Then Andrew shares that there is a boy, a boy who came prepared for a long day.  He has with him five loaves and two fish.  Andrew states the obvious by pointing out those five loaves and two fish won’t go very far in this crowd. 

Jesus doesn’t worry about that, he tells the crowd to sit and prepare for a meal.  Jesus gives thanks over the meager amount of bread and fish.  He then begins to hand it out to the crowd.  Once all are fed, guess what?  There is a bunch left over.  So what does the crowd do?  Give thanks?  No.  Show amazement?  No. 

They want to make Jesus king.  I mean just look at how he feeds them!  What a glorious king he will be!

Jesus doesn’t trust the crowd and so he withdraws to the mountain.  Next the disciples are in a boat headed for Capernaum.  Jesus is not with them.  A big storm comes up and the waves get rough.  They look up and there is Jesus walking on the water.  They are terrified, yet Jesus tells them to not be afraid.  Then he gets into the boat and they immediately reach the shore.

This story is what scholars call a “theophany,”   a revelation of the divine in Jesus.   It speaks to us of Jesus sharing in God’s work and identity.  It too is a miracle.  In the midst of the storm, Jesus brings the disciples to safety.

There are those who can explain to the most minute details how these miracles occurred. Like how the winds come down over the mountains in such a way that sudden storms rise up out of nowhere. There are even some “scholars” who will tell you that the feeding of the five thousand was no miracle, but rather people sharing what they had hidden from others because they felt guilty after hearing Jesus teach.

I am not sure about you, but I don’t buy that.  I don’t buy it because I really do believe in miracles.  I believe both these instances were miracles.  I believe they are part of our story because we need to remember miracles happen and I believe we are to look for miracles today. 

I am saddened that we, like some scholars, try to take the holy mystery out of the Trinity so that it becomes tame, safe, and distant. 

WHEN DO WE QUIT BELIEVING IN MIRACLES???? 

At what point do we begin to forget that Jesus is all about the miracles?  Then and now.  These stories and so much of our daily lives are miracles, yet we continue to break them down, understand, analyze, and explain them away instead of accepting them as the miracle they are.  Miracles of God.

I cannot explain a miracle.  I can however recognize one. 

As the stories continue to pour out of Aurora, Colorado I read about them.  You have seen them too.  The woman saved twice by gunfire in an unexpected place.  The bullet that just missed a vital part of the brain...

The birth of a child…

A flower peeking through the snow…

Healing from a terminal illness…

A marriage of many years…

Forgiving an offense…

When did we stop believing that prayers would be answered?  That miracles happen every day?  We look around us and see the negative, the heartbreaking, the life stealing

Not only do we quit expecting miracles, give up on answered prayers, we forget how to be child like.   . 

What would it take for us to see every day miracles again and remember that God answers our prayers and is a miracle maker?

We aren’t supposed to worry what others think or how we look.  We are to run as fast as we can to the feet of Jesus.  Yet we become afraid to.  It becomes easier to analyze and try to rationally understand the movement of God.

And then one day we look and we find we have put God in a box.  That way we can control God.  To somehow tame God. 

We want to do all the right things, say all the right words, have all the answers.   We want to be so together.  And so we forget.  That is safer somehow. 

We forget about miracles.  We forget about answered prayers.  We forget about wonder.  We forget who we are.  We forget who’s we are.  We forget who loves us.  We try so hard to fit God into a box we can understand that we become lost.  And along the way, we forget there is nothing we can do that will separate us from the love of God.

My brothers and sisters, this life of faith is not easy.  It is and should be full of doubts and questions and unknowing.  And you know what? 

I think God really likes it that way.  He doesn’t want us to put him in a box and save him for a rainy day.  I think what he wants most of all is to find him in new ways and new places every day.

That in itself is a miracle, God WANTS a relationship with us all the time.  Not just when times are good and we think we have it all together.

God wants us all the time.  God wants us especially in the brokenness, the mess, the stuff of life.  God doesn’t need us to have it all together to feed us.

The miracle is that God is there with us in that mess and wants to carry us as we walk through it.  To fee us with his love.  Is that not a miracle? 

Preston Gilham says, God, through his determination to share his heart with me, was willing to go to my ungracious place to be with me. He would rather die than live without me, even if it means ungracious places.

God would rather die than live without us.  God would rather feed us than let us go hungry.  That is a miracle. 

I don’t know about you, but that is enough for me.

whispers

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There is no easy way to back in to today’s sermon.

 

Satan.

The devil.

Father of lies.

Serpent.

Beelzebul.

Who or what is this devil we don’t like to think about? 

What is this eternal sin Jesus speaks of?

Things we don’t want to think about, talk about.  Yet my friends they are real and we face them every day.  

Every moment.

It is easy to say, “But he said…”

It is even easier to keep making choices that slowly numb us to the effects of sin in our lives.  

To become immune to those whispers to our soul of doubt, distrust, malaise.

We find ourselves unwilling to break free from the crowd that subtly goes from talking about God to questioning things we have no godly reason to question.  

To debate who is right and who is wrong, who is righteous and who is sinful. 

We move from seeking unity, harmony, reconciliation, or justice to striving to be the RIGHT one. 

The one in control.  

The one with the TRUTH. 

Untouchable in our quest to hurt others so that we may build ourselves up.

And we do it with such decency!  We couch it in our opinion because culture says we are entitled to it.  So what we say MUST be true because in our heads it is true.

And we do it over and over and over. 

We do it for so long and so well it is our truth. 

We may catch glimpses of inconsistencies to it or be smacked in the face with its error. 

And yet we keep digging in.  Holding our ground. 

We become unwilling to let real truth, real mercy free.  To do so would shake the very foundations of who we are and what we believe.

And so we push others away.  Continue to cover them in OUR truth until they become like that little cartoon character sitting on our shoulder representing those poor choices, wrong actions, hurtful words.

We want so badly to be loved, to belong, that we cannot soften our grasp on this truth.  To do so might mean we have been caught out, found wrong.  

So we keep the words, the hurt flowing out.  Raining down on those around us while we hold tightly to our umbrella of TRUTH.

And all the while we yearn to fill this hole in our soul.  This place that never gets warm.  This place that stays empty.  This ache that won’t go away. 

We keep striving.  Keep working.  Keep speaking.  Keep pushing.  Away. 

Further and further and further.  

We close our eyes to the good and the holy. 

Brush from us those wings of tenderness, of grace, of mercy. 

We continue walking that tightrope of our truth. 

Being strong. 

Being right. 

Being in control.  Always in control.

What we have, who we are…we define.  It is OUR RIGHT.  We will not let anyone else see us, not really.

Our mirrors continue to be fuzzy and out of focus because then we don’t have to look at who we have become.

We don’t want to look at our pain.  Our brokenness.  Our sin.  Our separation from God. 

We look to our efforts.  OUR efforts. 

And we take pride.  WE have done it. 

Oh we say we believe in God, yet we act as if it is all up to us. 

And that ache continues.  That hole grows. 

We look around and we have pushed love away.  This being right.  This defining our truth. 

It begins to ring hollow. 

But he said….

We have moments we hear the serpent hiss…and over time we think it is our voice. 

It is cold.  It is empty.  It is alone.

Suddenly our little island is rocked.  The marriage is in trouble.  The diagnosis is not what we hoped for.  The child slams the door in our face.  The job is in danger.

And the serpent whispers YOU are not enough…

But THAT one, THAT one …she is the reason. 

It is his fault. 

THEY said…

And the ache continues.  That hole grows…and YOU are alone in a dark and scary place. 

That little caricature on your shoulder whispers…you are not enough…

And the cycle continues…the darkness grows. 

The lies become truth. 

And one day it no longer matters.  You must strike just like that serpent.  Because when you strike there is something. 

The numbness recedes.

And the cycle continues…and you are alone…

And the ache continues…the hole grows…

And suddenly God and Satan have been confused in your head and in your heart. 

It is easier to walk away than to admit you have listened to the whispers of the serpent. 

Easier to blame others than to change the words.  Speak the truth.  Open your heart. 

But what if I told you that right now, today, this moment, in this place it is okay to look that hissing one right in the face and say…

STOP!

Or what if I told you that if that is too frightening, there is someone who can do that for you? 

Someone who has already won the battle for truth. 

Someone who has bound up the strong man. 

Someone who has been there the whole time whispering to your soul…

I love you.

Let me in.

You are enough.

I love you perfectly.

You can keep pushing me away.

BUT I WILL NEVER GIVE UP.

YOU ARE MINE AND YOU ARE LOVED.

I WILL NEVER LET YOU GO.

YOU ARE MY BELOVED.

being the new kid - easter 7B

She has had a rough day. 

Walking to the bus she soaks her shoes in the puddle she didn’t notice while she day dreams about the dance.  She then squish, squishes her way to the bus stop, her feet becoming uncomfortably cold and wet.

 

As she climbs on the bus the driver grumps at her about the mud she is tracking up the steps.  Others turn and laugh.  It is no fun being the new kid.

Arriving to class she remembers her English paper sitting carefully on the kitchen counter where it will be safe from her little brother’s jelly stained hands…and panics because it is still safe there. 

The rest of the morning a blur as she agonizes about the paper, no one answering when she calls home.

 

Lunch a disaster of warm tuna fish on that stuff her mom calls good for you bread that causes others to move from her table.  Her meal ending in embarrassing solitude.

Heading to math she sits down as the bell rings and the teacher announces on pop quiz on last night’s study material. .. That being the material she ignored to get the forgotten paper finished. 

The school day ending with the disaster that is gym when one is 13 and awkward with this ever changing body that doesn’t move the way it always did before.  After a painstaking ride home in which she waits for “the” one to invite her to the dance she trips getting off the bus and again the others turn and laugh.

She slowly trudges through the door wanting a do over of the day.  As she puts her bulging backpack on the table she hears her mom on the phone…not even a welcome home hug to redeem her day.

She heads to the frig as she hears…

“We are so proud of her mama!  We have all been praying so hard this would be a good move for her.  She is doing so wonderfully in her classes.  She is starting to make new friends.  She is volunteering at the animal shelter and has a few pieces of art on display at the library.  We were so worried about the move, but she is thriving here."

Suddenly the day is a bit brighter…then the clincher…

“There is this boy she has a crush on, his mom called to see if we could all have dinner together before he invites her to the fall dance… Mama you will be so happy at how well she is doing. .. She makes us so proud…  We hope she knows how much we love her and delight in all she does…ok I’ll tell her… ”

The power of over hearing a parent speak highly of the you that is a child is powerful.  Knowing of their love and concern for you is transforming.  Knowing you are prayed for a blessing and that is what we hear this morning in John 17.  Now the disciples were not teenagers, at least chronologically, and yet they are unsure of what is to come.  They are uncomfortable and awkward about this new role Jesus is calling them to.

This Jesus they had been traveling with, learning from, and trying to be like is talking about leaving them.  As they huddle together, they hear him praying for them…

 Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one…

These words are not for him, nor are they for God.  Jesus need not pray aloud to the father he is so connected to.  The words are spoken aloud for the benefit of the disciples.  Jesus knows what is to come and he is comforting them as he challenges them…

As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 

The time is coming that all they have learned will be put to the test.  It will be up to them to carry on Jesus’ ministry in the world.  They are unsure of what is to come.

In the church calendar Thursday was the day of ascension.  The day in which we remember when Jesus is taken from us in physical form and takes his seat at the right hand of the father…just as we profess in our creeds.  We pattern our liturgical year on the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of our lord Jesus Christ. 

This high priestly prayer that we hear today as we wait in that time between the ascension of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit is not just for the disciples.  It is for us as well.  We, like the disciples, are the ones to continue in the earthly ministry of Christ to reconcile the world to God.  We are the “church," the physical body of Christ here on earth.

In a sense the words of this prayer are a prayer of sending.  It is a prayer that the disciples and we will remember as we live into being the church.  A reminder that we are not alone, we are covered in this beautiful prayer on our behalf by Jesus.  Words to return to when life beats us up and we are that awkward new kid in the places we find ourselves.  Words that remind us that our father is proud of us, loves us, and knows how vulnerable we are.

The Greek word for church, Ekklesia, means "a calling out."  We are called out of this place to enter world and be church.  Not stone, bricks and mortar, but hands, feet, and hearts.  The body of Christ bringing others into the kingdom of God.

As Teresa of Avila says:

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which is to look out

Christ's compassion to the world;

Yours are the feet with which he is to go about

doing good;

Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.” 

As the worship ends, the service begins and I wonder what small act of Christ’s love can you, we, perform that will make the difference in the life of just one person today? 

This week? This month? This year?  This life?

Will you bless others in the name of Christ?

May we be the church when we leave here today.