I am a work in progress and I am increasingly aware of my foibles and personality style. I work on not being annoyed by small things….and work on being more patient. I was reminded of this and the need for change – both small and large- the other day when I had a brief exchange with my daughter Sophie. It went like this:

I was brumming about a person going very slow in front of me while driving the car. And this was after other comments indicating how easily annoyed I can get. Sophie said, “C’mon dad, please.” I then said, “You’re right, Sophie, I can sure be an impatient jerk at times.” She said without losing a beat, “You got that right!” Okay, so there’s much for me to work on – to let go, to be mindful of. Wow, kids, be honest like dad, but do what he says and not as he does!

The Rock group Rush wrote a song entitled Tom Sawyer. In it are the lyrics, “He knows changes are not permanent, but change is.” I’d like for us to consider how we are different, how we have changed –generally – and because of our connection here at CCC.

You are the embodiment of change: you are change itself, change in the making. It is an encouragement for me at this moment to look out and consider how each of you is a work in progress and that in the year 2008 you have changed in many small and significant ways. I include myself as one who has experienced change on many levels: professionally, personally, parentally, physically, emotionally and intellectually. I find you and the reality of change amazing.

I convey words, questions, invitations and challenges around change today. I hope you join with me in the next minutes so that you would be reflective and inspired for the coming days as we conclude year 2008 and welcome 2009. And there is much for me and us to reflect upon from year 2008. There is also much for me and us to look ahead to. The mundane changes and the profound.

A few things are clear: Changes have taken place in your life in 2008. Changes have taken place in your life because of your experience here and around CCC. Changes will continue to take place in your lives. Changes have taken place in your outlook, your worldview, your relationships, with your religious and spiritual sensibilities, questions and convictions. This community and each of you represent a crucible of change – of brewing transformation, this dynamic reality of the universe. You, in fact, are not who you were yesterday….from your cellular activity, to your thoughts, to your body, to your outlook on life.

Continue to reflect with me now on what has happened in your life because of your connection to this place Christ Community Church. What has been inspiring? What has been challenging, enlivening, annoying? What has moved you to be and become someone different? Do you go about making decisions differently now? What might’ve happened in 2008 that didn’t? And can it happen in 2009? What will you look for and make happen? What may you allow to happen?

This is a time, as are all times, to reflect and to look ahead. I challenge you to take stock in change and to take stock in your lives: The quality and nature of your lives and the changes that inevitably will happen. Listen to some of these examples of what has taken place for a few connected to C3:

From Marian Brower, a dear elderly lady who sits in the back most Sundays when she feels good to get out: “I come here and like CCC because of its open-mindedness and inclusiveness. It invites me to be more open-minded. Count on being more open-minded if you are part of this community.

And from Jon Tunny: “This place spurs me on to greater and deeper thinking and encourages me because no one else around is doing what C3 is doing.” I am a better human being because of this place. Count on your relationships and thinking to be more enjoyable, more honest, more mature. Three incredibly different people – at different life stages, each changing in unique ways while connected to CCC. I wonder what yours is.

I could go on about how people have encountered change in the values explored here at CCC. Universal values we share with traditions and peoples from around the world: Environment and sustainability, relevant religion, wellness, justice, community and more. Each of you could share some experience on how you have been impacted, how you have been motivated, inspired, comforted or challenged in these areas of focus and values.

As you think about how your lives, your relationships, your thinking or believing are different, and what may be, consider the old story contained in Exodus in the Hebrew scriptures. Now, while there is little or no archaeological evidence to substantiate an actually exodus by the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, there are compelling themes and challenges for us that come from this story.

The people of Israel had to deeply consider what they would leave behind in Egypt and what they would take with them out into the desert experience and transition. Like them, what will we take with us from 2008? What must we leave behind? What habits might be continued, ended? What patterns need reshifting or modifying? Do I need to simplify my life in new ways? Do I need to take on some new intentional learning for 09? What do I transcend in 2009 and what will I continue to include? What might you leave behind in 2008 that is no longer useful? These are all questions at the center of our human experience and in our lives here at CCC and what it means to be about change.

I have to admit that I am both excited and nervous about what will be in 2009. You see, I am quite predictable; I like my patterns, I like my securities. My kids are old enough to know how predicable I am with most things and how I parent. I chuckle at myself now. The kids remark how scheduled I am, how organized I can be. I know I annoy them. I can be a hard person to live with. I have much to learn and there will be small and significant changes for me in 2009.

I know that even if I try with all my will and energy, things will not remain the same. They will change. I will change. And if this is so, how much more satisfying or meaningful might it be if I were actively involved and intentional in this reality, this inevitability? Anais Nin wrote: “And the day came when the risk it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom.” Think of what new possibility or change is bubbling up…is making itself known. Calling you out. Calling you inward for a new becoming.

In the gospel of John, Jesus is recorded to have said, “I come not that you just have life, but have life in abundance.” Jesus was about full living and change; about a dynamic quality of thought and innovation. Jesus continues to be a model of change for me – as I consider how he sought to challenge and affirm structures and attitudes within Judaism. What is the new and changing abundance of your life to be in 2009? What fantastic or necessary or humbling changes from 2008 do you build upon? What do you welcome and invite into your life that has not been able to take root or flourish?

I invite you to join me in welcoming and creating changes that lead to greater freedom; greater health, mature relationships, simplified living; changes and outcomes that lead to more active, generous lives, to the transformation of the mind, to new questions. This is what I wish for you…and for me. I see how people are impacted all the time by being part of this community. If you are part of this place, expect certain outcomes: deep thinking, intimate connections, new possibilities for growth, relating, serving and living. I see how my own life is transformed and transforming. I see it in you. And, I invite if for and with you in year 2009.

There are two Greek words used in the new testament that guide me: Utopia and Eutopia.
“Impossible place” – “beautiful place”.

Ecclesiastes passages inspires me to consider this:

-There is a time for change; there is a time to remain the same
-There is a time to make things happen; a time to allow things to happen
-There is a time to be active; a time to refrain from activity.
-There is a time to learn and expand; a time as well to let go of striving.

What will be your seasons? Your changes? Your abundance, your beautiful places? Your new edges of learning and becoming? How will you use this community to usher in personal and communal and worldly change? Will you be attentive to making happen in 2009 what did not emerge in 2008 – in this community and with yourselves?