On Sunday, October 18, 2020, the third of four services celebrating the appointment of our four new district superintendents was streamed from Watsontown UMC. (View here: tinyurl.com/DSinstallGW) This service celebrated the appointment of Rev. Dr. Gary D. Weaver as the new Lewisburg District Superintendent. Following is an edited version of his installation address.
Scripture: Isaiah 43:18-19, Psalm 100, Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16
Rev. Dr. Gary D. Weaver
Good and Gracious God, may only your word be spoken and may only your word be heard. AMEN.
In the scripture from Ephesians, the Apostle Paul does not ask us to lead a life worthy of the call, he does not encourage us to lead a life worthy of the call and he does not challenge us to lead a life worthy of the call, he begs us to lead a life worthy of the call. (v.1)
I don’t know if you have ever begged anyone for anything. If you have you know it was a desperate time. You were in a situation, a place, a season when you really needed things to change or you desperately needed things to remain the same.
I must admit, I am not sure if the Apostle Paul needs us to change our practices of humility and gentleness, but he begs us to practice them, in what seems to many to be a world gone off track, with greater patience, bearing with one another in love as we make every attempt to maintain a unity of the Spirit as we are called to.
On this Laity Sunday (October 18, 2020), where we celebrate the role of laity in the church – which needs to be a year-round celebration – the appeal is to join and knit together as we promote the building up of the church, but more importantly the building up of the Kingdom of God as we know it.
Although Installation Services focus on the District Superintendent being installed, what is worthy of celebration today is the cooperative mission and ministry of lay folk and clergy together, as we humbly attempt to be a part of God’s vision for God’s people.
Little could any of us predict where we are today. Who could have imagined us sewing masks, wearing masks, fighting over masks? Who could have imagined this awkward season of opportunity that we call Covid? And on a personal note, who could have imagined me serving as a District Superintendent in the Lewisburg District?!
I will be brazen enough to say that not so long ago, none of us imagined…and yet God knew and our God continues to know.
The chosen scriptures takes us into the Old Testament and into the present day movement of God. These words tell us—remind us—that our God declares, that our God saves and that our God proclaims; that our God makes a way in the sea, a path in the waters; that our God does and is doing a new thing! A new thing!
Now a bit of self-disclosure. Interestingly enough, I am not a car guy. Our oldest son, Isaac, is a car dealer in Arizona. I appreciate cars and I am thankful for my car and all that it provides me, but I am not a car guy. I married into a car family though, when families were strongly brand-and-maker-loyal—remember those days? There was only one car in Cindy’s family and that was Ford. I am absolutely sure that my father-in-law, if he were alive today, would roll his eyes to the fact that I drive a Mini Cooper!
But I do, like most of us, love the smell of a new car, the freshness of a new car. That smell and freshness offer possibility. Maybe it’s because people associate the smell with the luxury of having purchased a new set of wheels, or for me the idea that a Mini Cooper makes me look cool — the smell of a new car offers possibility.
That is what, I would say, the scripture offers us today. Possibility.
I would like to zero down on Isaiah 43:18-19.
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
I hope we can get behind that today. We can get behind the idea—we might even say, “amen!” to the idea—that God is doing a new thing. We might even enjoy what God is doing. Today, we gather in the Lewisburg District where new things are happening, where new things are springing forth.
And so just like the freshness of a new car, the possibilities that lay before when we embrace that God is doing a new thing call out for an “amen.”
I love a good amen—I believe we all love a good amen whether we proclaim it out loud or sing it silently. Amens are living testimony that our God is doing a new thing even now. Even now.
In the Lewisburg District we are saying, “Amen!”:
“Amen!” to local church hospitality that feels very different in this Covid season, yet is spiritually radical.“Amen!” to churches where pastors and leaders are creating discipleship pathways while we are all trying to simply find our way.
“Amen!” to a communion table where all are invited and welcomed, even when done uniquely.
“Amen!” to a cluster that is planning to celebrate Christmas at a drive-in theatre.
“Amen!” to the local church that brought in 14 new members in the Covid season.
“Amen!” to an offering plate that is more full of sacrifice than full of money.
“Amen!” to virtual nativities offered to the community this Advent Season.
“Amen!” to a full back pew of those who can’t hear yet are present each Sunday.
Dr. Todd Allen of Messiah University shared during a “Dismantling Racism” conversation the idea that conversations that end with “amen” are needed but conversations that end with “ouch” are needed as well.
Not many of us love a good “ouch.”
It has been said that “When it hurts, don’t be afraid to say ouch!” (Mary Buchanon)
As a church, as those who sit in the pews, as those who stand behind the pulpits, as those who lead outside the local church, and as the man who stands before you, we need to be able to say, “ouch” to where the church has been, “ouch” to where the church is, and maybe even “ouch“ to where the church may go.
As a people of faith and as faithful people we live between the “amens” and the “ouches.”
We can embrace that God is doing a new thing—”Amen!”
When Isaiah spoke to the people of the day, the new thing that God was about to do signaled the freshness of God’s ways and the continual possibility of a sudden, unexpected turn of fortune.
Throughout scripture the amen idea that God is doing a new thing appears frequently enough that we ought to be sure we understand it. It is fundamental to how our God works over time, as much now as in Isaiah’s time.
Yet, being told to not remember the former things may seem a bit ouchy.
I like to remember the former things; recall the days gone by. I like to look back and act like there was a better time.
Remember, Isaiah’s writing is to the children of Israel at a bleak period of their history: They are in captivity. They have lost everything they thought they would keep forever. They were homesick for the land and the blessing God had promised them.
And the words, “do not remember the former things” really say, “change your focus.” Quit looking behind, start looking ahead to a new thing. You see, if you are continually looking behind you can’t see where you are going and more importantly you can’t see where God is. If you are ever going to move on to new things in Jesus Christ, you must learn that you cannot depend on your past victories to sustain you.
The children of Israel had many victories in their past: leaving Egypt, conquering the land of Canaan, fighting prospective conquerors, and surviving a split in their country.
But, now they are in captivity. All their previous victories were doing nothing to set them free. They needed a new work, a new miracle, a new victory, a new thing.
The question isn’t ‘What has God done?’, the question for you, for our church, and for the Lewisburg District must be ‘What is God doing right now – what is the new thing that God is doing?’
Just like we cannot lie in the past successes, we also cannot allow your past failures to possess us. Do not dwell on the past.
The children of Israel had failed God miserably. Every time God blessed them with good things, they returned to God evil things:
- God gave them the Temple: They gave God idol worship.
- God gave them truth: They lived and proclaimed a lie.
- God gave them commands: They lived like they were suggestions.
- God gave them wealth: They used it to abuse the poor.
Like us today, the children of Israel did not deserve to receive anything from God. Yet our God still loved them and still loves us.
As we hear today, being told not to remember the former things does not fully entail a criticism of them. What these words say to us is that we need to let go of the former things in a way that allows God to be praised; to let go of the former things that continue to separate us from the fullness of knowing our God.
Isaiah’s word is to encourage us. Make no mistake, God truly is doing a new thing even in this Covid season. Do you not see it? And the scripture asks, “do you not see it?”
I want to take you to a place where many of you have been professionally and personally—to a bedside.
This happens to be the bedside of my mother. Now there are a few things you need to know about my mother and my growing up. I had a childhood that was best described as eclectic. You know when I first jotted that word down I started to wonder what would eclectic means in reference to a family?
In the world of design, eclectic is about harmony and the coming together of different styles, juxtaposing textures, and contrasting colors to create a cohesive beauty. That just might be my family: different, juxtaposing and contrasting and coming together to create beauty.
My father died when I was young and in that time I became aware, in a new way, of my mother’s sister, Aunt June, and Uncle Manny and my cousins. My mother and her sister had a very close relationship and so when my Uncle Manny died after my father died, my mother and aunt made a covenant that they would never leave each other. Throughout the years, that played out in many ways as they lived out their lives as widowed sisters.
But let me take you back to my mother’s bedside.
My mother lived her last several weeks in an in-house hospice in Lancaster County. In those weeks my sister was that amazing family member who was by our mother’s side constantly. My Aunt was there often and not being able to be there always she needed to know that someone would be there. Simply, she did not want my mother to ever be alone.
In that time I was serving in the then Wellsboro District, appointed to Calvary Church, Lawrenceville on the Pennsylvania-New York border, so I would visit when I could.
One day, my sister, my aunt and myself were gathered around my mother’s bed and were silently counting her breaths, wondering, feeling lost, but valuing the sacredness of the moment. Many of you have been in that place as you anticipate a life-well-lived ending.
None of us are sure how, but somehow the three of us found ourselves in the communal kitchen across from my mother’s room—my mother was alone. We were not there but a moment when a nurse came to us and said, “You will want to come back in, your mother’s breathing has changed.” Your mother’s breathing has changed. What a gentle way to tell us that the life-well-lived was over.
The church, as we know it, is in the midst of its breath changing. Some of us stepped out of the room even for a moment and the church changed and to be honest because I believe we can be honest, parts of the church need to change.
Now, let me make myself clear, I am not painting a picture of a dying church. I am painting a picture of a church that just might, like my mother, find a new life in the release of heaven.
I can not bring my mother back, and we can not bring the pre-Covid church or the church as we idealize to have been years ago, but we can forget the former things and we can stop considering the things of old as we see the new things that God is doing in our midst.
God, through Isaiah’s voice, is calling us to release heaven to the people around us as God makes a way in the wilderness and as God makes rivers in the desert.
The Rt. Rev. Robert C. Wright, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, Ga., once said, “You and I have been called to release heaven wherever we are. And you and I have been given the capacity to release heaven wherever we find ourselves. And the more heaven gets released every day, you and I press on with Jesus.”
So today, together, we must keep our spirits open to the new things that God is already doing. And to that I say, “ouch” and “amen.”
