Reframing Hope
Haggai 2:1-9
Many of you know that one of the ways that I like to write my sermons – is to get out of the house or the church – and write in an inviting and comfortable setting such as a coffee shop. I guess my love of coffee isn’t a secret to folks here in church. I think I have written many of my most creative sermons while at good coffee places like Starbucks, Kimball Farm, Panera, and the Main Street Café in Groton.
This past Tuesday was no exception. I found a new place where I spent two hours working on my sermon in a very comfortable, inviting space. As a matter of fact – it probably was the most inviting place I have ever sat down to work at.
It had a very spacious common area that was carpeted. It had a variety of chairs and cushy comfortable seats. At one end of the room there was a large screen television and a table that held a number of the daily newspapers. There was a separate glassed-in room that was a dedicated area for parents to keep little ones occupied – full of toys to play with and items for climbing. There was another separate area for Wi-Fi that had cubicles for privacy, shelves and outlets for electricity, although the free Wi-Fi was available throughout the building. It also had comfortable chairs with little movable shelves on them which could easily hold a laptop. It was spacious, user friendly and inviting.
Off to the side there was free coffee, espresso, and cappuccinos – made with Starbucks coffee I might add. There were free donuts, juice and water. And there were plenty of restrooms that were spotlessly clean.
Upstairs there was a café and a fitness center. I had been offered a free lunch and so after looking through a menu of salads, wraps, burgers, soups and sandwiches, I chose to have the special of the day which was a Monte Christo Sandwich on French Toast Bread. I guess I didn’t think about what French Toast Bread was until it arrived – and low and behold - they had first cooked up two pieces of French toast on the grill and then added thin layers of ham, turkey and cheese and grilled it again until the cheese melted and sunk right into the sandwich. It was delicious and I never would have thought of making a sandwich in between two pieces of French toast. I should have gone into the fitness center after eating that sandwich and walked on a treadmill, however since the Wi-Fi service reached all around the building, I continued to work on my laptop, surrounded by every amenity that I could need or imagine. People of all ages were there talking, eating, working and enjoying themselves. I thought this was a place that I would come back to work at more often – especially with the free Starbucks coffee just calling to me. I had expected and planned on being there for about three hours, but it really only took just under two hours to have our 2006 Toyota Highlander have its 60,000 mile check up at the new Toyota dealer around the corner from the church.
Yes it’s true - the inviting, comfortable space with the free Starbucks coffee, Wi-Fi, cafeteria and fitness center was the customer service waiting area at a car dealership. They sure don’t make car dealers like they used to! Not only did I leave there with my car working much better, I had decided it was a place that I would return to when I needed a new car or had to have additional service on our current car.
Now I don’t know about you – but I remember when I was younger and had my first car, a used 1973 Mercury Comet - service centers didn’t look like that at all. I remember the waiting area being small, cramped, and dirty with yesterday’s newspapers strewn around the room. I remember a coffee pot sitting on an open Bunn Burner, with white Styrofoam cups and a canister of powdered creamer sitting next to it. The coffee was not good – however the work on the car was. Our family usually went to the same garage – my dad knew the workers and we felt it was pretty reliable. It had a good reputation, and they stood by their work. We could count on them to get the job done and their efforts kept me safe as I left and journeyed along the road. Most often we left the repair shop feeling that the car was safer than when we came in.
Today car dealerships have reinvented themselves, aiming to provide a welcoming and inviting space for people who have a variety of needs while their car is getting serviced. Car dealerships have reframed how they do business. They still sell and service cars, but they have “reframed” how they do it. The frame around the automobile business looks totally different than it did years ago, even though the goal remains the same. They want to have people pull out of there feeling good about the work and that they were going to be safe as they journeyed along the road.
Re-framing our ministry together is what we are going to begin to do tonight at the GPS meeting at 4:00pm. We are going to begin a creative process where we will imagine, research and choose new frames for this community of faith, that will help God’s children grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and bring both good news and hope to places both near and far. The message about the love of God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, but the framework in the 21st century for doing ministry is changing and we have decided to address it as a step of faith and hope. We want to envision a place where people come and then leave feeling safe, held and loved as they journey along the way.
God’s good news and hope remains the center of what we are about. The good news and hope of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our work, however we realize that we need new frames to support that work so that we grow in ways that can sustain us in the years ahead.
Carol Howard Merritt writes in her book Reframing Hope this about framing: “Framing is a linguistic and psychological term. Frames are the basic mental structures that shape the way we understand the world.” [1]
We can “frame” the way we think and talk about something in a couple of different ways.
For example let’s talk about sports for a minute. Carol does this in the book but I am going to use a different sports team. Let’s look at the Red Sox. They didn’t have the best season this past year, and two people could choose to talk about the season differently. One person might be adamant that it was a “rebuilding year” while another might say that they just “stunk and they are a bunch of losers.” [2] Their language frames actually how they see it – one chooses the language of hope and one does not.
We are at time in the life of our church where we need to reframe how we do ministry. However we begin by looking inside ourselves at what we value and love about a community of faith. Then we have to reframe not only how we are going to do ministry together, but also how we talk about that which we believe.
Carol Howard Merritt believes that this is a hopeful time in the landscape of the church. Things are beginning to change again. Creation is ongoing and is happening within the life of people of faith. The model of church as “entertainment” is starting to lose its luster. Bigger is not always better and people of faith are searching for authentic models of faith that value both our roots and our wings – where we have come from and where we are going. But now we also look at the nests from which we fly and return to. Roots, wings and nests.
Authentic is an important word and choice, one that we need to think about as we imagine and plan. We seek authenticity for this community of faith here in Littleton, Massachusetts. We can’t be something that we are not. We will pray and journey together to become an authentic community of faith, a genuine community of faith, so that when people come in searching, they will pull out knowing that their soul and spirit has been blessed in a way that will help them along their journey.
The question is what new way – what new set of frames will we discover in the GPS process?
That of course is the big question.
Carol gives us the language of hope: “The act of reframing acknowledges the need for a new view at the same time as it recognizes the strength of our traditions.” And she actually gives us direction and hope for the meeting this afternoon. “We are not creating from nothing as we begin the vital ministry of the next generation. Instead, we are working through what we have, gathering up the best parts, acknowledging and healing from the worst, and reframing it in a new generation.” [3]
God is not sitting still. Isaiah proclaims “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19)
God is still working through people of every nation and every place, both near and far. The prophet Haggai says (the prophet Haggai! I have never quoted the book of Haggai – how did that turn up in the lectionary this week?) Because Haggai says to us: “Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD, and work. For I am with you. This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”
God has not stopped speaking and is reframing, reforming and retelling the story in new ways.
God has not stopped creating and is reinventing, renewing and transforming.
The proof is in the (ask and then wait)………the sandwich because I never would have thought of putting ham and cheese between two pieces of French Toast. But somebody did…
Paul writes to the little church in Ephesus: “And now to the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to God’s power that is at work within us, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20)
©2010 Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
[1] Carol Howard Merritt, Reframing Hope, ©2010 The Alban Institute, p2.
[2] Ibid, p 3 using a different sports metaphor.
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