Weekly Sermon: Thinking God for the Vision : 09-07-25

I invite you to close your eyes and picture this vision for St. Luke's.

When the children are called forward for the children's message,

there's a whole bunch of children showing up, even more than you saw today,

and they're showing me up also,

excited to learn about Jesus with families so relieved to find a church that welcomes everyone.

When you serve or visit our free breakfast, which is now every Saturday,

you help distribute donated leftovers from Panera and from Kroger.

There are prayer stations and special holiday parties.

When you come into church on Sunday, you smell brunch being prepared.

Some Sundays, it's tortillas with rice and beans. Other weeks, pancakes.

Our Spanish-speaking outreach has grown with classes, worship,

and a bilingual outreach minister.

The renovated Youth Room has become a place for a support community for LGBTQ youth at risk.

At last, a place where they are loved and can figure out who they are in the embrace of God's grace.

Our global mission relationships keep us connected to the world and local justice

actions in solidarity with those suffering in our own community.

There is even more of what we already do well, adult Bible study,

quilts and kits for Lutheran world relief,

worship and music that makes our hearts soar, community that helps everyone

know that we are each loved and prayed up.

You can open your eyes. This is the vision that I preached four years ago as

we were preparing our capital campaign to update and improve our facilities

so that we could increase our mission.

At the time, I prayed and hoped that this vision was from the Lord and I was listening well.

And a while after I shared this vision I had a conversation with one of our

members who is a powerful prayer and this is what they said to me.

I was so glad to hear you preach that vision because I received the same vision for St.

Luke's about three years ago and I've been waiting for you to say it.

Well, that was a pretty powerful confirmation that the Holy Spirit is up to

something and God has a plan for the present and the future of St. Luke's.

The prophet Habakkuk says, write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it.

For there is still for the appointed time, and it speaks, and it does not lie.

And if it seems to tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come.

Now, the wonderful news is that we have clearly made progress on fulfilling some of this vision.

And we did make it plain in our capital campaign literature,

which was listed in these blue boxes on the inside of the back page of the capital campaign folder.

If you guys remember that, it was in these boxes right here.

And when we receive new members, I would bring this to the new member class,

and I would show them just this page so that they could read what our mission

was about so that they could get on board with it.

And what was so exciting was that we, I could say, well, we have expanded our breakfast.

And you know what? We are giving away Panera Bread donations every week because

Zach Maxwell, raise your hand, Zach, goes to Panera Bread every Monday night at 10 p.m.

And he picks up all the leftovers from the day and he puts them in the freezer here at St.

Luke's. And then every first and third Saturday when we're passing out burritos,

we're distributing all of the Panera bread with every burrito breakfast that we serve.

And we have more families in our Luke's Learners program.

And our VBS last year and the year before had, what, over 30 kids?

So we've expanded our families. And Rick Rodriguez has taught more ESL classes

and reached out to our community, and we've had trips to the zoo and so on.

And now we are building relationships with Dover Elementary School,

which is a majority Spanish-speaking school, and we have volunteers there on

Monday afternoon with the Network Mobile Food Pantry.

And now this year I've started volunteering inside the school once a week to

develop relationships with the teachers and the staff.

Last year, we held our first ever fall festival with four to 500 people from

the community, and we are doing that again this year.

It is Saturday, September 27th, so it's time to sign up and bake your cakes

for the cakewalk and get your chili ready for the chili eating contest and sign up.

The signups are on the bulletin board.

Our global mission team did go on their mission trip, and they have had wonderful

experiences in mentoring us and supporting the ESL classes, and we could go on.

So we're so thankful that God has given us this vision and helped us begin to fulfill it.

And I think you may have some other ideas about how we might fulfill the mission, and And if you do,

I would invite you to take your Connect card and jot an idea that you have or

that you're passionate about or that you think that we need to add to how we

can fulfill our vision and write it right now on the back of your Connect card

if it's something that you are excited about.

Because God is still giving us this vision with more mission to carry out in Jesus' name.

And we have more to do to fulfill this vision.

We have more Spanish-speaking outreach that we can do. We have more room to grow with families.

We have more room to expand our youth program, more kids.

We can reach out to more empty nesters with love to share with our families.

And we can also reach out to youth at risk. I don't know if you're aware that this week or this month,

Texas Senate Bill 12 went into effect, and now no public schools in the whole

state can have an LGBTQ club at any school.

So if you are passionate about this and you're willing to work with me to reach

out to the high school two blocks away and see how we might partner or support

high school students who are at risk with our newly renovated welcoming youth

room and talk with counselors, please talk to me.

There is plenty of mission for us to do to fulfill our vision.

So the big question that remains is how?

How do we get from where we are now to fulfilling more of the vision that God has given us?

How do we continue to build on what God has already done through us and keep

growing into a ministry that is sustainable, as Carrie has begun to talk about with us,

and long-lasting into the future that God envisions for us?

And this is a question that has been on my mind, and I'm so glad that you have

asked me this question this morning.

That's what's all on your mind, right?

Right?

And I'm sure you're thinking, that's an incredible vision, Pastor Linda.

How are we going to get there?

I know that's what you're all wondering. And I'm so glad because I have three

ideas that God has given me.

And I'm going to have to ask the same person, are these things that God are saying to you also?

So the last four Sundays, I've shared what I've learned traveling through Greece.

And today I want to share with you what I learned in this country when I was

on sabbatical about how to move forward.

And during my sabbatical, I did rest some, but, you know, I had questions.

And so I visited four growing churches during my sabbatical,

two non-denominational churches here in Dallas, and two growing ELCA congregations,

one in Bentonville, Arkansas, and one in Mazomanie,

Wisconsin.

And then I had a Zoom with somebody else who is working in a church that doesn't

even have a building in Atlanta.

So I've discovered three things that we can do in order for us to be able to

move forward with our vision.

And the first thing I learned is that we need to lift up.

What do I mean by that? In our gospel reading, Jesus is very clear about his mission.

He's going to bring good news to the poor. He's going to free the captives.

He's going to bring sight to the blind. And he's going to announce that God's

power and love are present for everyone right here, right now.

It's the year of the Lord's favor.

It's happening now. God's power is alive here and now. He is very clear, crystal clear.

We have an incredible mission that we love, serve, and welcome all.

All being the operative word here as an inclusive church that welcomes the whole

rainbow of God's people,

including LGBTQ people who many cast aside and today are downright hostile to.

But it is time to clarify and to lift up why.

Why do we love, serve, and welcome all? It's not just to make people feel good.

It's not just to fill their stomachs with food, although these are nice and good things to do.

Why do we do this? It's to change people's lives with the power of Jesus Christ.

And it's time to lift up, lift up Jesus.

We're on a mission so that others can experience what it is to have the power,

the forgiveness, the love of Jesus.

Lift them up and change their life the way it has for us. If Jesus hasn't changed

your life, you wouldn't be here today.

Right. And so one church that I visited had their mission statement in huge

letters in the entryway of their church.

And it said this, abiding in Jesus, we are making disciples together.

Crystal clear. No illusion about what they're doing and why they're doing it.

So I've been thinking about how to clarify and lift up Jesus and his power to

change lives, which is why we love,

serve, and welcome all to begin with.

Now, we can wordsmith later, but I'm thinking something like our mission is

to change lives as disciples of Jesus who love, serve, and welcome all.

Or abiding in Jesus and changing lives as we love, serve, and welcome all.

But you get the idea. We've got to lift up Jesus and make the point that we're

doing this to change lives in the power of Jesus.

Churches that are growing have absolute clarity about their mission to change

lives in the power of Jesus.

So it's time to lift up Jesus and be clear about our purpose,

which is to change lives with the power of Jesus.

That's why we love, serve, and welcome all, and we need to lift that up.

Number two, the second thing that we want to do as we give thanks to God for

this great mission is lighten up.

So we lift up. Now we're going to lighten up. These are going to be easy to

remember. See that? Okay.

We need to lighten up.

Now, I know I'm going from preaching to meddling, so just get ready.

It's time to lighten up Sunday morning. Let's make things a little less complicated

and a little less labor-intensive.

A 16-page bulletin in two sizes with every single word spoken in the service,

printed for reading, is time-consuming and labor-intensive every single week.

Certainly for me, certainly for Erin, who could be using her time for more technology

and outreach. And the words change every month along with the preaching themes.

I have not met many people who are seeking a church home or a spiritual community

who are looking for a place that uses up about seven trees a year on bulletins

when we have the gift of technology at our fingertips.

We spent an entire year during COVID worshiping with screens,

and we did it beautifully.

You all were so awesome at it.

And it's time that we lighten up our consumption and our worship experience.

This can simplify ushering, offering, attendance.

I went to four different churches and I was never handed a single piece of paper

to go into worship at any of them,

including the ELCA Lutheran churches. And guess what?

I still experienced amazing, uplifting

worship and music I could fully participate in with joy and love.

And in fact, I felt more connected with those around me because my head was

not like this. It was like this.

You see what I'm saying? I know this is hard. I'm not saying it's not hard.

It is. I'm used to reading.

I've got a whole notebook, an 18-point type.

My script every Sunday is 17 to 23 pages.

But I could do the same thing on a screen hanging right there.

And as we lighten up, what does that do for us?

We can do more of what we excel at, which is what?

Connecting with our neighbors around us, sharing prayer, love, care, concern,

building community, being energized for mission, noticing who needs a friend

and whose name we have yet to learn.

Lighten up, lift up, lighten up.

What is the third thing we want to do as we give thanks to God for this great mission?

Live it up. We're going to have fun.

Lift up, lighten up. We're going to live it up. What do I mean by that? I mean it literally.

There is no other way to be a person of faith and follow Jesus other than to live it.

We've seen evidence, 585,000 hours of mission, right?

We're awesome at this. So we're going to do more of that, live it up with joy.

And that's why our tagline at St. Luke's is where spirits come alive.

Did you know that came from this gospel reading from Luke?

And did you know that St. Luke's Gospel of Luke, right? You all have made that connection, right?

And that's where that's where this church gets its name.

So that's why our theme are where spirits come alive has to come from the gospel of Luke.

This chapter, the fourth chapter, Jesus says the spirit of the Lord,

the spirit of the Lord is upon me.

So the tagline of St. Luke's is where spirits come alive. It all comes from

right here, Luke chapter 4, Jesus' mission statement.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

It all comes right here. Our spirits come alive because the spirit of Jesus

that was on him when he started his ministry is also on us.

We are alive in Christ because his spirit is within us.

Jesus calls us to live it up and to live it out. Let the Spirit of Christ come

alive and shine through us in all we do as disciples of Jesus.

And not just in our mission that we do here, but in our daily life.

So what did Jesus do? He surrounded himself with disciples and followers,

and he trained them in what he was doing.

And that's also what we want to do. live it up more by deepening our own discipleship

and our own training first.

You know, Jesus never called his disciples to become members of a church.

I'm sorry to say that. That sounds like sacrilege as a pastor to say that.

But he called them to be daily disciples, right?

He called them to live it as daily disciples. So growing ELCA congregations,

especially the two that I visited in Arkansas and Wisconsin,

are moving from emphasizing membership to discipleship.

They're moving from being a membership church to a missional church.

And so I developed a discipleship class on sabbatical for those new to St. Luke's. But guess what?

It needs to be road tested. By who?

By you. Thank you.

Isn't that going to be fun? I can't wait. I spent the whole month of July visiting

churches and writing a discipleship class.

You're going to be like, oh, God, why did she go on sabbatical?

Okay, I love it. Okay, so I'm going to teach this discipleship class in October

and November when Emily, the beautiful Emily, is done teaching 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

And I want as many of you as possible to come after church and join me in this

discipleship class so we can all grow together.

Because I need to grow in knowing how to teach this stuff, right?

I've been ordained for 36 years. I haven't done this before.

I am going to learn how to be a different kind of pastor after being ordained

for 36 years and 63 years old.

And I went to go visit these younger guys at these churches and they're like,

you're how old now? You're doing what now?

They don't believe that I'm doing this because I'm supposed to coast and hidey-hose

silver into retirement.

Well, that is just boring as something I'm not supposed to say from the pulpit.

I'm not interested in that. And if that's what you're interested in,

then it's time for you to boot me to hidey-hole silver into retirement.

But if you want to grow, if you want to have fun, if you want to live it up,

then let's have a discipleship class and figure this out.

Because that's what I'm interested in doing.

So if you're interested in doing that, then let's go. because it's time to lift

it up, lighten up, and live it up. That's where I'm going.

Then, because with your feedback and your wisdom and your experience,

we'll have a usable discipleship class for newcomers, and all of us together

will be living it up as even more faithful disciples.

And what was so fun about writing this class is that the Holy Spirit showed

me how I could work in a piece of the catechism into each class.

And I was like, oh, this is awesome. So if anybody forgot their catechism or

never had catechism, I'm sneaking that in to discipleship.

So they're going to be Lutheran too. So we're going to have a Lutheran.

I mean, this stuff is so exciting. I know y'all think I'm nuts. That's okay.

They're going to be Lutheran disciples. Let me tell you. Okay.

So we will still receive members. We will still do our record keeping.

I'm still, you know, an ELCA accountable pastor who will do all the stuff I'm

supposed to do for the bishop.

But our focus is on living it up, following Jesus, being a disciple in daily

life and in our mission as a church.

So it's easier to share faith when we're paying attention to how Jesus love

is changing your life and making your spirit come alive.

So this is what I'm

grateful to God for for the vision

and not only that but helping me

to see some of the steps we can take to more fully embody and take the next

steps we fulfilled some of the vision and now we'll take the next steps to fulfill

the next part of the vision that God calls us to.

So I hope that you are as excited as I am to lift up Jesus and his power to

change lives, to lighten up,

freeing us for deeper connection and energy for mission and to live it up as

together we deepen our own discipleship.

I think God has so many people to send us. And now it's time for us to get ready

to get ready. Are you ready to get ready?

I'm ready to get ready. So let's say yes and amen.

All right. Go forth with vision, grounded in prayer, rejoicing in God's impact

and growing in generosity.

Trust that your gifts matter, that every gift matters.

Share God's grace with purpose as you love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God and we will.