An Expansive Reign

Construction beginning at St. John's Church

To my knowledge I have never literally heard the voice of God. Sometimes I wonder what that voice might sound like. In my imagination I hear a deep, booming voice with reverberations that shake me to my core. Old Testament stories of God calling Moses at the burning bush or speaking to Elijah in the sheer silence strike me as moments when the Almighty utilized such resonance to break into the lives of ordinary people. Sure, we have built up these two as outstanding and exemplary, but an orphaned child of a servant and an obscure Tishbite would not have made the “Who’s who” list of their days. Still, God chose to speak to them. Likewise through Jesus, God spoke to normal, everyday people like fishermen, tax collectors, soldiers, merchants, and even criminals. What is to say that God is finished speaking? Maybe God has spoken to me? Why wouldn’t God speak to us in this very moment on this wonderful occasion?

In much the same way that God spoke to Moses, Elijah, and disciples, like Andrew, God spoke to a man from Assisi, Italy. Francis of Assisi—whom we celebrate today—heard the voice of God and through this calling expanded the reign of God here on earth. But, it did not happen all at once. At first, Francis did not get what God was saying.

A young man who spent his early adult years in military service and revelry, Francis suffered as a prisoner of war for a year until his family could ransom him. The three hundred sixty-five days after this imprisonment required healing and recovery during which time through visions God visited the young man from Assisi. One day while in the Church of San Damiano Francis spoke to God and God spoke right back saying, “Francis, go repair my house, for as you can see it is falling into ruin.” Well, as the church in which he was praying looked shoddy, Francis thought God meant he needed to fix it. However, after selling his possessions to repair the church, what God led Francis to do was much more about spiritual reform than a building project.

Now, we often spot Francis in our gardens, as those statues preaching to birds—this helps us to recall that Francis loved all of Creation. And while this is well and good and part of the reason we are here this evening, his calling from God was not simply to bless animals. No, God called Francis to expand God’s reign here on earth through preaching, teaching, and living a communal model of love. Francis started a movement of living together in God’s love that still goes on this day. In much the same way I think we have heard God calling us as a community into expanding God’s reign here on earth. In this Capital Campaign “Our Table, God’s Table” God has invited us to do and be precisely an expansive community of God’s love.

The first fall I was here at St. John’s we had to buy a lot of sticky notes. Do you remember that? On those post-its we wrote not only who we currently are, but also who God dreams we could be. We wrote down what we were grateful for about our community, the mission of our church, ministries we would start, and from those brightly colored sheets of paper emerged a calling from God to expand God’s reign here on earth, right here in Decatur. A lot has happened since then.

In the past four years we have done so much more. We got together a group of dedicated parishioners to turn God’s call to expand God’s reign into actionable next steps; we hired an architect; we talked about how we use our space and how we want to use it; we found out that accessibility, more space to gather as a church community, youth, and staff, and a more fruitful space to share in fellowship are God’s calling for us; we met in each other’s homes; and we even hired a fund raiser to help us; we raised over $3.5 million; and all the while we wondered not how might we build a new building, but like Francis how might we work with God to expand the reign of God.

Here we are. On the cusp of ceremonially breaking ground. While this marks the end of one part of our journey, God will continue to call us to dream. God will continue to speak to us. God will continue to say, “Fix what needs fixing and expand my reign here in this place.” Today is a day of great joy when we like Francis are responding to God’s call.

We may ask again, “What does God’s voice sound like?” I want to amend what I said earlier when I said that I had not heard God’s voice, for I think we all have heard God’s voice. I think it sounds like the rustling of sticky notes and the passionate conversation of parishioners in home groups; it sounds like the dutiful deliberations of our campaign committee, the kazoos of our Kickoff Gala, and the quiet of our day of prayer; it sounds like the hard work of architect, contractor, and church coming together to create a unified vision and now it sounds the clanging of backhoe and construction equipment helping to begin this building project. God is calling us to expand God’s reign. May we continue to bring the love of God and the expansion of God’s reign to this community, to this city, and to this world!