I have been experimenting with preaching from an outline in this season. Apologies to those who read online – I know this is harder to read than a complete sermon text!

1. Annual Meeting Sunday
   1. Happens every January (though some churches do it in the late fall) 
   2. Business – presenting budget, electing representatives, ministry updates
   3. I usually take invitation to do a “State of the Parish” sermon, to best of my ability
   4. Last year: Jesus at the Wedding at Cana, & anxiety about whether there will be enough. & being in the “stretch zone” as the parish changes and as my role changes too. 
      1. Helpful to me to re-read, because honestly, dealing with the renovation last year sucked up a lot of my capacity to think and pray and practice my way into those changes… if you want to re-read it too, I have some copies in the sermon basket!
   5. Year before that: Preached on an Epistle about holding the present lightly, so that we’re more able to welcome God’s future. That was an easy one!

2. THIS YEAR… 
   1. Ask myself: What’s the word that needs speaking? Where am I catching a glimpse of God’s next work among us, that I can name and hold up? 
   2. Coming up blank.
   3. Not a bad blank. Not lost, lonely, anxious blank.
   4. Blank page in an artist’s pad, with colored pencils and markers and paints at hand…  
   5. Which makes a lot of sense, when I think about where we are in our common life at St. D’s… 

3. CAP CAM TRAJECTORY
   1. I came to St. D’s in Jan 2011. First document that mentions preparing for a cap cam dates from March 2011. 
   2. Not because I came here itching to do one, but because folks here had some things they felt could be better. 
   3. Budget issues – put it off; good thing! 
   4. We began in earnest in 2015. Five years ago. 
   5. Open Door Project – make bldgs more accessible, flexible, comfortable and beautiful. 
   6. And here we are.
   7. ODP is NOT OVER. 
      1. More on that in a bit! 
      2. But: Over the hump. 
      3. Renovation was the largest part, both financially and logistically; and it’s more or less over. 
      4. Still collecting pledge payments for the next couple of years; still some interesting and important pieces to undertake.
      5. And still a lot of closets and cabinets and corners with stuff that doesn’t belong there… I’m telling myself it will be OK if some of the sorting and settling waits till the summer! 
      6. But I find there’s also starting to be room to breathe… and wonder, what now? 
      7. Back to that blank page…! 

4. Lectionary readings for today frame this wondering space. 
   1. Sunday readings come from 3-year calendar used by many churches
   2. Epiph: dropped one lesson, extended another, but still working with assigned texts
   3. Lots of kinds of churches where preachers choose texts; I like the discipline & challenge of hearing what the Spirit is saying to the church though the texts that the lectionary places before us. 
   4. Today: Prophetic text from Isaiah; portion of early part of John’s Gospel. 

5. ISAIAH
   1. Prophet. Godly Play: “a prophet is someone who comes so close to God, and God comes so close to them, that they know what is most important.”
   2. First 39 chaps attrib to OG Isaiah. Later, another prophet’s voice continues and extends Isaiah’s prophecies. Different, but also consistent – it IS one book. 
   3. This is Second Isaiah – chap 49. 
   4. People of Judea conquered, many killed, others taken away to live in exile. 
   5. Prophetic text points towards return to homeland, and restoration of what they have lost, for God’s people. 
   6. Israel not forgotten or abandoned; God remembers; God has a future for them. 
   7. BUT NOT JUST return and rebuilding: a new mission.
   8. You’ll be honored by foreign kings; you’ll set captives free; your cities will be so full you’ll be saying, “Where did all these children come from?” 
   9. MOST OF ALL: Sign of God’s power and redeeming love to the whole world. “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
   10. Echoes – Song of Praise this season – Isaiah 60: “Nations will stream to your light, kings to the brightness of your dawning…” A city of peace and plenty and light for the whole world. 
   11. Import msg for people in exile: temptation to just want what they had before. God says: OK – but I have bigger plans for you. 

6. APPLYING ISAIAH
   1. Now, all that speaks to me pretty directly.
   2. Renovation is not conquest and exile. But there was chaos and confusion and dislocation, and some struggle, and some grief. 
   3. And now we can settle in to renewed spaces & return to normal. It would be easy to let that be enough. 
      1. Since Xmas: I’ve been able to notice & enjoy. Hearing that from others, too. Things look nice and feel good! 
   4. BUT: God through Isaiah: It’s too light a thing to just move back in, tidy up, get back to how things were before all the mess. 
      1. God says to God’s people: I have work for you that extends beyond the gates of your city, the doors of your church. 
      2. Your renewal has a purpose beyond yourselves. 
   5. Return, rebuilding and restoring is not just for our comfort or convenience, but for God’s glory and God’s work in the world.
      1. I don’t know yet what that will look like. 
      2. But I believe that’s what we’ll be discerning in the months and years ahead. 
      3. What’s waiting to be drawn or painted on that blank page … or maybe several blank pages.
      4. If this makes you uncomfortable – if you were enjoying getting back to normal, and the idea that our new “normal” includes opening our hearts and minds to God’s unfolding purpose for our parish, sounds like more than you’re up for at the moment – then you are not alone. 
      5. That’s where our Gospel today comes in – and it is good news. 

7. VII. GOSPEL
   1. We are back and forth between the Gospels of Matthew and John a lot in this season, for some reason. 
   2. We’re back in John this Sunday, soon after Jesus’ baptism (which we had in Matthew last week), and John the Baptist is telling people about Jesus: “That man over there? He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God!” 
   3. John had his own disciples – followers and students – from among the many, many seekers who came to him to hear his preaching & perhaps be baptized.
   4. Here he is pointing away from himself, towards Jesus: That’s who this is all about. That’s who you really need to follow.
   5. Just a few verses before this passage, a verse I treasure:
   6. V. 19-20: “This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ John confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’”
   7. Something I read a few years ago called this the Confession of John the Baptist – as in, his confession of faith. Only half a joke. 
   8. I AM NOT THE MESSIAH. Not the One Sent by God to Save and Restore. I just point at him. Look, there he is!

8. VIII. Putting the Confession of John in conversation with Isaiah….
   1. It is too light a thing for God’s people to simply have what they had before, restored to them; God intends them to be a light to all peoples, so that God’s saving power can reach to the ends of the earth.
   2. But – and – We are not the Messiah.
   3. Reassurance: Whatever comes next for us does not have to be Messiah-scale. 
      1. Nobody, least of all God, expects St. Dunstan’s to fix what ails the world or our nation or even just Madison or Middleton. 
   4. Offering ourselves to God’s purposes not the same as being the SAVIOR of the WORLD. That’s a relief!
   5. But just as important: We are not called to be the Savior; but we are called to point towards him. 
   6. That IS our job, individually and together – to live lives that point in word and deed towards a loving and redeeming God, made known to us in Jesus Christ. 

9. Picture that blank page. Close your eyes if it helps. 
   1. A nice chunky notebook; good brushes; cup of clean water; the colored pencils are sharp and ready… 
   2. If art stuff makes you anxious, feel free to pick another image. Wood and tools? An empty garden plot? An image of joyous potential. 
   3. We have some praying and wondering and discerning to do, in this season. 
   4. I am looking for some prayer partners to pray with me about the next chapter in our common life here at St. Dunstan’s. I don’t know exactly what that looks like either but I know I need it. If you think that might be you, talk to me. 
   5. There’s no hurry in all this; we’re still unpacking, and still recovering, from the renovation. 
   6. But I think the time is right to begin patient, prayerful preparation for the next thing – remembering that it won’t be OUR thing, but God’s.
      1. The purpose, the plan, and the power – all God’s. 
   7. If we listen with open minds and hearts, God will show us the way. I really believe that. 
   8. Let us pray.

      O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world
      see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by the One through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.