Sunday, July 12, 2015

One Safe Place


One Safe Place from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Mark 4:35-41
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 

38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Psalm 91
1You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, 
2will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust." 
3For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; 
4he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 
5You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, 
6or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. 
7A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 
8You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 
9Because you have made the Lord your refuge, b the Most High your dwelling place, 
10no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. 
11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 
12On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. 
13You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. 
14Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. 
15When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. 
16With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

I sure have missed you people. I just got back from a week long mission trip up in Petersburg VA, before that I was on vacation for 10 days at Glacier National Park up in Montana. I’ve missed y’all, and this place, while I’ve been on the road. After 57 sermons in this pulpit, this sanctuary feels like home to me.

Each year, Workcamp chooses a theme. This year, the theme was “One Safe Place.” It’s taken from a song by Marc Cohn. So I’ve been reflecting on what a safe place is for a while.

Flying out of Helena, Montana is an experience. It’s a regional airport, so it doesn’t have the extended hallways and moving sidewalks that we see in Charlotte-Douglass or Atlanta-Hartsfield. I’m pretty confident that there were more TSA agents there than passengers. They had the x-ray for our carry-on and the metal detectors for all the passengers. They had the blue latex gloves in case they had to check pockets or a bag.

All those elements, the uniforms, the technology, the plexiglass barriers, were in place to make us feel safer. Wouldn’t you know it, my suspicious looking face got pulled aside for additional screening?

This is on the way back from our vacation, and the only souvenir I picked up was a hat. Everything else had been through security back in Atlanta when we first flew out. But they went through my bag nonetheless, because the gate on the other side had to be a safe place.

Turns out I accidentally smuggled a small pocket knife through Atlanta security. Near as I can figure, it fell out of the pocket of a pair of pants sometime back in 2007 and has lived behind the inner lining of that suitcase ever since. The security guard who found it behind that lining had to call her supervisor over to see if it was considered “concealed.”

They were very reasonable about the whole thing and let me go after the confiscated the knife. I repacked my bag to join the rest of my family at the gate on the other side of the security equipment and plexiglass that was meant to make the plane feel safe.

Three days later I drove to Petersburg VA with a truckload of power saws, chisels, utility knives, hammers, hand tools of every kind knowing that I was headed to One Safe Place.

At Workcamp, the staff pride ourselves in teaching the youth who come to us that they are capable of doing more than they ever imagined. A church will send us a van full of teenagers, some of whom have never held a screwdriver, and we’ll put a circular saw in their hand and teach them how to use it.

At Workcamp, we welcome people from a variety of backgrounds: affluent and wanting, protestant and catholic, civilian and military, black and white; and we stuff them into a gym together and make them play silly games and do bizarre dances together until they trust one another enough to open up and share their struggles and triumphs with one another.

At Workcamp, we go out into the city of Petersburg and rebuild people’s homes and lives. Some of those homes are in rural areas where the resident is lonely and needs someone to talk to as much as they need to have their handicap ramp repaired. Some of those home are in the historic district, where an elderly lady needs that assurance that someone still cares about her, even if it’s just a teenager who comes to repaint the inside of her living room.

Sometimes we walk into dangerous neighborhoods, with a higher crime rate than the rest of the city. One of my residents this year was named Emma, and in the last few months her home has been broken into multiple times, and not just burglarized, but vandalized as well. Family portraits smashed, obscenities painted on the walls. She’s the sweetest old lady you’ll ever meet, but she’s been made a victim in her own home.

Workcamp came into her home too. We sent five teenagers and one adult, and in four and a half days they rebuilt her back stairs, installed a new handrail, repainted her bedroom, replaced some of her floorboards, added some tin flashing around her roof, and added new deadbolt locks to her front and back doors.

More important than the construction and home repair, Crew 10 made an old lady feel loved, made her feel safe in her own home again. When they said goodbye at the end of the week, she wept for love of them and in gratitude for the blessing that these teenagers had been to her.

After 57.5 sermons in this pulpit, this sanctuary feels like home to me. But as we see time and time again in scripture, home is not a hiding place. It’s a safe place that equips us to face the challenges of following Christ into the world. Our church family is a safe place where we experience God and also lovingly challenge one another to grow, to engage with one another rather than withdraw.

One Safe Place. Not “the only safe place,” but one of many. A safe enough place that we experience love even in the midst of chaos and suffering. It is not boatbuilding or sailing skill that kept the disciples safe in the midst of the storm. Christ was with them in the storm, and that’s what made their boat a safe place.

It’s not the technology at the airport or the locks on our doors or any weapons that keep us safe. It’s the love we feel around us. We are safe in the arms of the Most High God. We feel God’s protective embrace in the arms of our brothers and sisters in Christ. “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”

Tri-Cities Workcamp is a place where we have a lot of practice making people feel safe enough to be vulnerable, a place where Workcampers are safe enough to accept challenge and grow in faith and wisdom. 

This church is that too. For so many people in our congregation and in our community, I believe that one of the gifts of our congregation is that we are a church where it’s ok to not be ok. We can struggle and still love one another. We can even fall down from time to time and that’s ok. So we’re going to work on developing that gift. Our sanctuary feels a lot like home to us, and we as a church family will continue to build a safe place that remembers, and is guided by, God’s promises “Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.”

After 58 sermons in this pulpit, this sanctuary feels like home to me. And I know that we have seen God’s salvation in Christ Jesus, and we know that we are held safe even in the midst of a fearful world. It may not always be as dramatic as a Workcamp story, but in response to God’s call, we will worship God, grow in faith, and show God’s love to everyone. Because God’s call is what has made us a safe place. Therefore, we heed Christ’s ageless call by healing, teaching, and reclaiming, serving God by loving all.


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