Welfare of the City
First Congregational Church of EvanstonOctober 14, 2007 (Twenty-eighth Sunday after Pentecost)
Jeremiah 29:1,4-7
Psalm 66: 1-12
Rev. Dr James E. Roghair, Interim Minister
Brooklyn Gas
Kenny Moore was working for the Brooklyn Gas Company when it faced an enormous challenge. Deregulation meant that the end was near for old monopolies like Brooklyn Gas, and so the company had to change into a new company . . . that could survive in a fiercely competitive marketplace. Kenny Moore knew that this transformation was going to be a shock to his organization, and so he suggested . . . that they hold a funeral.
[Kenny had been part of a monastic order for 15 years.] So when the time came for Brooklyn Gas to transform itself . . . Kenny was ready . . . He booked a conference room . . . and set it up by putting a funeral urn and two fake tombstones in one corner. . . he wore his priestly stole and played a tape of Gregorian chants.
“Dearly beloved,” he said to the 60 or 70 people in attendance, “we are gathered here today to bid a fond farewell to the Brooklyn Union Gas of old.” Then he asked people to write, on index cards, what was over for the company — what was now dead. People wrote things like “lifetime employment” and “monopoly,” and stuffed them in the urn.
Kenny got out some holy water and blessed the urn. . . the company would have to die before it could live. Then Kenny focused [on] a steamer trunk for the things they needed to carry with them on their journey into new life. This time, Kenny asked them to write on a . . . card what they would need for this new journey. They wrote things like “great people” and “dedication to the community,” and threw the cards in the trunk.
Finally, he had a stork from a . . . display stand as a symbol of their birth as a new company . . . He invited everyone to draw what the future of the company might look like, using crayons and poster paper . . . everyone was participating.
“People are dying to be connected, invited, involved,” he explained. He knew that this funeral would help his colleagues express themselves about the huge transition that they were experiencing. They had to grieve the death of one company before they could celebrate the birth of another. (Adapted from www.Homileticsonline.com)
Death and Rebirth
What happened at Brooklyn Gas is like a parable of what often happens in life. We tend to think that things always happen in the proper order of birth – life – death. But often things do not really go in that order. And sometimes death comes before rebirth and new life. Death becomes a precursor to new life.
Judah in Babylon
Many Judahites – the leaders and wealthiest of the Jews – had been transported into Babylon. Much in their homeland had been destroyed and left to decay. Only the poorest of the land were left. But the exiles in Babylon couldn’t wait to get home, to get back to the way things were. And they had their own prophets to encourage them to look forward to this return.
But the prophet Jeremiah had not been taken to Babylon. He spoke from the sorrowful city of Jerusalem (though he was finally taken into Egypt himself). But Jeremiah wrote letters to his people in Babylon. He told them that they needed to give up on their plans to immediately come back to Jerusalem – it was not going to happen. God had sent them to Babylon, and those prophets who were telling them they would soon go back, were false prophets.
Instead Jeremiah encouraged the exiles to embrace the land of their captivity. He told them to settle down, to have families and build houses, and even to prosper there. But more than that, he told them to pray and work for the welfare of the land – of the city – where they were.
This meant they had to seek the best for their enemies – the people of Babylon. The Jews’ own welfare would be tied up with the welfare of that city where they were. (If you ever wondered where Jesus got the idea of praying for and even loving your enemies, look at Jeremiah!)
But that was a tough one! It still is. Jeremiah was, in a sense, asking them to have a funeral for their own hopes and their own prejudices – to have a funeral for their own certainty about the way things were supposed to be. And he was asking them to take on a new identity – not that they would become Iraqis in Babylon, but that they would be Jews of Babylon. Surely the change of identity for the Jews was a bigger transition than the one Kenny Moore was leading Brooklyn Gas Company employees to make. It was more difficult and deeper.
Processes of Grief
What are the processes of grief that people have to go through. Early this morning on WBEZ radio Krista Tippet’s program “Speaking of Faith” was dealing with the processes of grief that a person had to go through who had become totally paralyzed. What are the processes of grief that the people of Brooklyn Gas had to go through to effectively become a new company? What processes of grief did the Jews in Babylon go through to abandon their eagerness to get back to Jerusalem and to embrace the place where they were?
And why am I telling you all of this, this morning?
There are many processes at work in your own experience that reflect some of the experiences of these two stories. Many of you have been reading the Diana Butler Bass book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, so you are reminded that although institutions like First Congregational Church exist through time – and we celebrate that passage of that time – the Church that you and I know today is very different from the Church that was established here in 1869. And any of us who might be tempted to try to go back to the Church of 1869, will find that our efforts are frustrated. It might be necessary for us to in some way have a funeral to bid farewell to the vision of the Church of 1869 in order to embrace the time in which we find ourselves.
But, it might be even more to the point for us to think about the Church of 1969. Some of you remember that one vividly. But, just as sure as the Jews were dragged off to Babylon and their old homes could not be restored, the Church of 40 years ago is gone, too. And we can’t yet see the church of 2008 and beyond. The church of 2007 is the only one we can see.
Search Committee is Working
Here we are at a time when your search committee is busy at work. You might be holding your breath to find out who the candidate might be and when she or he might come. That is good. But let me remind you that you are not the Church of 2005 anymore, either. Your last called pastor, Ted Miller, left more than one and a half years ago. And if in the back of your head you are still thinking about the way he did things, or secretly looking for a return of his presence – or if you are still harboring concerns about the way he left – I invite you to consider a funeral for those thoughts, as well.
Like the Jews in Babylon, I encourage you to embrace the new situation in which you find yourself. But I am a part of this, too. Now it has been close to one and a half years since I came as your interim pastor. Even though I came as a temporary person, and you all knew I would not stay long – how does that song go? “I’ve become accustomed to your face. And there may be a little grief as I leave, too, whether that is sooner or later.
What is Needed to Embrace the New?
What do you need in order to let Ted Miller go? And what will you need to let me go? If there is a new frame of mind you can consider, I encourage that. If there are discussions that need to be held, I encourage you to speak out. If there is assistance that any of you need, I encourage you to seek it. Let me know if I can help you. Ted is not coming back, but before long, Jim is not coming back, either.
But I remind you of the confidence of the Prophet Jeremiah – speaking to the people facing the unknown – encouraging them to settle in and embrace the new time and place and to get to work making a home out of that time and that place. I pray the same for you.
You are Congregationalists planted in Evanston – a town much different from the town where this Church was initially planted – and even much different from the day that Ted Miller came to be with you. What is required is the embrace of this new day – settling into it praying for it – and not longingly hoping for the good old days to return.
Evanston might leave old timers scratching their heads. “This isn’t the town I remember!” We are in a time when the first Mosque in Evanston is now situated on Bridge Street near where Simpson ends just east of McCormick. Members of that Mosque came to the Interfaith Clergy Association and sought our friendship as they were making their plans to move in. Perhaps you remember when the first Synagogue arrived here!
We are in a time of great growth – and some of you keenly feel the loss of the identity as a small city and the coming of an urban identity. Isn’t someone still trying to build a 40 story building within a few blocks of this church?
We are in a time when the homeless population overflows onto our own sacred space, and we are not always sure how to respond. Our own attempts to work with the homeless, our attempt to solve their problems, don’t necessarily solve the problems nor contain the concern of our neighbors.
But, the wisdom of the Prophet Jeremiah invites us to embrace the town where we live – even if it doesn’t seem like the town we knew. Pray for the welfare of this city. Settle into it and see how you can make it a place of God’s Shalom – a reflection of the Kingdom of God.
And invite your new pastor, when she or he arrives, into this concern and care for the city. Invite that new pastor to lead you deeply into the life of the community where God has placed you. And rejoice in God’s leading.
Amen.
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008