Proper 8 B – 2006, Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Psalm 112, 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15, Mark 5:22-24, 35b-43 The Rev. J. Brian Ponder Church of the Resurrection Starkville, Mississippi July 2, 2006 In the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. The thoughts I share with you today might be quite a bit different, if we didn’t find ourselves in the place we’re in as a parish family … now a week into a transition period … a week into a time when we begin to gather our thoughts and hopes and dreams and expectations for what and who is to come … our life together and our next rector. I’m glad so many of you were able to be here last Sunday evening for Bill and Diane’s leave-taking from us, from this place, as we prayed for them and for ourselves as we began to transition—Bill and Diane in their callings and we in our own ministries. … I thank God for God’s words which flowed through the vessel of Shannon Johnston, who stood among us as preacher and bishop’s deputy, as dean of the convocation. What an eloquent insight into where we are as a congregation, what we were and are feeling, what we will feel, what we just might be open to in the days ahead of us … if we’ll allow room for it. And, I thank God for your presence here today along with that of our Vestry members and wardens … a sign of assurance, of support to and for one another, of witness to the ministries which continue within and flow from this place. … I look forward to hearing from our Vestry a little bit later this morning. So, here we are … ready … ready for what’s next … for what’s to come … for the task ahead … ready to get at “it” … to giddy up … but are we ready … to wait, to rest in the tension, … the hopeful expectation … the unknowing? In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus raises a little girl from near death … he heals her. The way in which he moves within the life of the girl whose name we don’t know and within that of her father, Jairus, is nothing less than miraculous. This is an instance of holy time in which space is created, where room enough is given for the working of Jesus in the life and witness of him who seeks Jesus’ guidance, even when the worst seems possible … even when others have given up hope … even when they’ve given-in to what they perceive as reality. … … We may just find that we’re not so different … sure maybe some of us more than others … anxious … already certain of what we need … perhaps a number of us feeling a little burned … or even abandoned … perhaps some a little scared or wary at the idea of having to form new and significant relationships … or operating in a different mode or worshipping in a different way for a little while … and maybe others of us not even knowing yet just what to expect. … Jesus says: “Do not fear, only believe.” Today, we journey. … It’s a journey that continues, as Bill reminded in his last letter to us, … a journey on which, I am sure, we’ll find out more about ourselves, more about those we hope to serve, more about the One we are called to serve … more about just who and whose we are. … Yes, there will be times of unknowing. Yes, there will probably be some times of frustration … some times when in our hurry-up-expectations we’re told to wait … some times maybe when we’ll disappoint one another (I hope not, but may be) … and other times when we may hurt one another—unintentionally, or simply through our efforts to have things our way … but, God-willing, many more times when, if we’re open to it, we’ll find ourselves aware, assured, sustained by, reconciled through a more perfect knowledge of just what is Church … just what we’re being called to be as community of faith, and as Church of the Resurrection, and as people and children of God. The journey continues, and we know the message is ours for the hearing: “Do not fear, only believe.” … I admire Jairus. … It couldn’t have been easy for him to seek out Jesus … to expect something from someone so radical, so unorthodox … to be a religious leader and find himself looking outside of everything he knew, that tight-knit, normative inner-circle-kind of way of being and doing … of Jairus’ trusting in the unknown … not afraid to be vulnerable—and publicly at that … yet in so doing, finding himself open … open to change, open to the unknown … open to gifted-ness … receptive to something completely new … his—a hopeful awaiting, an expectation for transformation. Our belief, our hopefulness, our openness to this message of Christ will be our strength throughout this process … this process of discernment, of seeking, of clarifying, of calling—our own and the one we await. … This will sustain us. … This will help us to see more clearly the path before us … to hear more readily just what it is we’re being called to be in this place, at this moment in our lives together, on this leg of the journey … if we’ll allow for it … room enough … holy time … letting the Spirit work through us, rather than us trying to work the Spirit. If we’ll allow for it, we will most surely find blessing—not only for ourselves but for those to whom we continue to be called to minister—not muddled down by process, not hindered by things out of our control, not worried about who will pick up the slack, or “what if this happens, or doesn’t for that matter” … not if we will work together with God’s help … not “stuck” at all, but empowered to continue in mission and ministry as we journey onward … together … of course a little bit anxious, and maybe a little wary and wearied, but always journeying together in the promise of life and love and witness and ministry … Sustained … Made whole … Readied and full of new life.