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“Giving an A”

Since 1930, Chicago Cubs fans have been flying a flag with a bold “W” outside Wrigley field to announce a win. But if you watched the World Series this year, you probably saw Cubs fans waving the Win flag before and during games. The tradition has changed. The Win flag is posted everywhere and every day—game or no game, victory or defeat. It is a vote of confidence for a team who had not secured a championship in 108 years. I like to think that the faith and hope represented by the Win flag is what helped the Cubs overcome a three-games-to-one Series deficit. It is what encouraged them to do what they did in a rain-delayed 10th inning. Under the waving win flags, the Cubs came together to claim a real win.

Sometimes you have to declare a win in order to win. Sometimes you have to declare an accomplishment before it is accomplished. Sometimes you need to have gratitude before the gift is given. Sometimes you need to know you’re an A student before you get the grade.Our Scripture texts for today, admittedly from some of the odd corners of the canon, encourage people to do what is necessary by giving them a needed boost in confidence.

Haggai was a Jewish prophet who preached to the Jews that returned to Judah and Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. They returned to find their land desecrated and their Temple in ruins. The people intended to rebuild the Temple as a sign of God’s presence among them. But the newly liberated people struggled in poverty and drought. They needed to rebuild their lives before they got around to rebuilding the Temple. Once their houses were secured and paneled, Haggai started the building campaign. Haggai did this by inspiring confidence. He told them that God is with them, the same God who built them up into a great nation after their slavery in Egypt. This God of liberation would assemble them and make their community flourish once again. Haggai declared to the people that they are children of the God of Israel and so they are endowed with great generative power. Haggai inspired faith, hope, and confidence in the people. And his building campaign worked. Inspired by what they could do together, they each contributed to the work of building. The people rebuilt the Temple to a new glory. To accomplish what needed to be done, Israel needed to feel accomplished.

Now travel in time with me to Thessalonica in the 1st century. An early Christian pastor writes to a young church. He is concerned that they will be easily swayed by false teachers who operate according to fear and anxiety. The pastor does not want the new church to be deceived or deluded by easy solutions to difficult realities. He wants the church to be faithful, not fearful. So, what is his motivational tactic? He gives thanks for who the church already is. They are chosen of God—individually and as a whole. Knowing this, is sufficient to withstand the troubles of the times. “You are called and claimed,” the pastor writes. “I am grateful for you,” he tells them. “For you are precisely the people who can withstand adversity. You are part of a great tradition—one to which you now contribute.”This is the confidence the Thessalonians needed to thrive in a hostile environment. This is the faith they needed to bond as a community contributing to Christ’s kingdom. Sometimes we need to be reminded who we are so that we can actually be who we are.

The Christian gospel is an unequivocal affirmation. It is that God is for us; it is that we are God’s beloved, first and foremost. This affirmation inspires confidence. Remember Jesus baptized in the Jordan. A voice from heaven affirms that he is well loved and delighted in. This inspires confidence. Jesus goes right from this affirmation into bold ministry.

Our baptism is also our affirmation. It is the sign and seal that God is well pleased with us. And if we remain a little wet behind the ears, if we remember our baptism, then we can live our lives with confidence. We can do what God desires for us to do with our resources, time, and talents. This is what happened in Haggai’s Jerusalem and in 1st century Thessalonica.

Affirmation and the confidence that comes with it inspires us to contribute to something greater than ourselves. The Chicago Cubs, the Jewish exiles, and the Thessalonian church were all given a boost of confidence. So filled with faith and encouragement, they contributed to a common mission. And great joy is found in contribution.Our individualistic, capitalistic culture would have us believe that real satisfaction is found in personal achievement and acquisition. But that is like saying there is more joy in the batter rounding the bases than there is in the celebration at the end of the Series. It’s like saying there was more joy had by the Israelite putting a panel on the Temple than by the whole congregation giving glory to God in the Temple they built together. We all long to be a part of something greater than ourselves. That is why there is such happy satisfaction found in contributing to something we really believe in. We simply need the confidence to contribute.

Roz Zander, a coach and therapist, and Ben Zander, an esteemed orchestra conductor, write about what happened when a class of music students were affirmed at the beginning of a course. Ben was teaching a graduate course at the New England Conservatory when he found that his students were in a perpetual state of anxiety over potentially failing the course. The students compared and competed with others, as a result. Ben consulted with Roz. They decided to announce that all students would be getting an A in the course. The one requirement they had to earn the grade was to write a letter telling “the story of what will have happened to [them] that is in line with this extraordinary grade.” So the students wrote letters written in the past tense describing how they overcame fear, self-doubt, worry, and depression. They wrote about what they accomplished.

What Roz and Ben discovered in this experiment was that people stopped measuring themselves against others. They stopped considering themselves on a graded scale from average to extraordinary. The affirmation of the A freed people to simply pursue avenues of possibility. It also stopped musicians from defining themselves in relation to another’s musical abilities. Instead, they meaningfully contributed to the orchestra. “Giving an A,” Ben writes, “recognizes a universal desire in people to contribute to others.” Affirmation and the confidence that comes with it allows us to consider how we might meaningfully contribute what have been instrumental solos to the sound of the orchestra.[1]

I believe a lack of affirmation and confidence limits the church. Competition and comparison, fear and anxiety—these things have prevented us from meaningfully contributing to each other as a church. We are all—every one of us—endowed with the great possibility that comes with being God’s beloved. But we hedge possibility every time we compare ourselves to one another and shy away from the ways we could more fully contribute to the life of this congregation. We think we are not smart enough, eloquent enough, or able enough to do the new things God calls us to in this congregation. But we are enough, more than enough. I am so proud of this community of which I am a part. I brag about it every time I am away. But just imagine how much more we can be and do, if only we couldcatch more of the joy of who we are and what we are called to be!

So today, let us affirm who we are. We are a welcoming place. We are a community full of life with wonderful opportunities for our children and youth to grow in faith and love. As a church, we have been willing to learn and be challenged. We have been constant in caring for one another. We have been for those who are poor and disadvantaged. We have sought to confront racism, bigotry, and hatred. We have been led to praise God with extraordinary music. And we have been willing to try new things for the sake of our congregation and surrounding community. We are a place where joy is caught and spread. I confidently give us an A.

And I think we are the kind of community we are because we highly value the ways we contribute to one another. And we contribute much with our time and talents. We also contribute with our resources—our money. Because of who we are, we have big dreams for this place. We talk about it in ministry team meetings, in deacons’ gatherings, and at Session. And to be who we really think we are capable of being as a worshipping community, we need to increase our monetary contributions.

Our stewardship theme this year is Catch the Joy! And what I interpret that to mean is that we can be so filled with joy about who we are that we will joyfully contribute our gifts in order to more fully live into what we are called to be as Ark and Dove. Our staff, deacons, and elders believe in what we are and can be—so they have pledged their contribution today. We ask that you bring your pledge cards to church next week, where we will dedicate them on our communion table. This year, our pledging contributes to one fund that covers our current mission and ministry operations and our current building expenses. In the spring, we will consider how we might contribute to the expansion of our building. We may have to consult Haggai again for that. So this week, consider the financial promise you might make to contribute to the vitality and joy of this place.

Like the Cubs fans declared a win before it was won, like the prophet Haggai affirmed the glory of the Temple before it was built, I want to give Ark and Dove an A for 2017. I hope you will too. But like Roz and Ben Zander, I think it is important to state why an A is given. As you go home and consider making and increasing your contribution to Ark and Dove, think about what Ark and Dove will have done and what we will be at this time next year. Pray about it. Talk to one another. Consider talking to an elder or a member of our long range planning team. And I ask that you consider writing a letter to Ark and Dove, dated November 2017. Write in the past tense. Report on the community we have become as a result of meaningfully contributing—with our time, talents, and gifts—to one another and this place.

Here is my letter:

Dear Ark and Dove,

We received an A because we are a people of joy.There were rumors and realities all around us that our denominations are in decline. We were told that the church has lost its relevance. We were tempted to pledge all monies into savings accounts for our uncertain futures. But week in and week out, we came into Ark and Dove and were welcomed for who we are. The children taught us to treat everyone as a child of God and the adults did so—even as dignity and respect declined in our society. We just finished hosting Winter Relief again and somehow there was even more joy among guest and host than last year! We have been supporting families at risk, here and around the world. Small groups have led to new ventures in faith. A greater sense of justice led us to take action against oppression, poverty, racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Ark and Dove increased its reputation as a hotspot for some of the best music around. We have begun another phase of construction, due to a successful building campaign. Actually, we revisited some of the dream budgets Session once set forth—because we could! We became truly confident in God’s dreams for us. We received an A because we learned to live more fully in God’s all-affirming love. What a joyful year it’s been!

Peace,

Pastor Jon

[1] Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life; Penguin 2000, pp. 25-53.