Every Body Needs a Vision
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
(Vision Play Team)
April 10, 2011
It is a horrific image. A valley filled with the dried, bleaches bones of men, women and children. One can only imagine the pain and slaughter that led to this moment. For those first listening to the words of Ezekiel they knew that his vision was no mere metaphor. It was their life. The Babylonians had laid siege to their city, slaughtered thousands, and deported the best and brightest that were left. The killing was so great that they had not even been able to bury the dead. The vision hit too close to home. They understood clearly that they were the dry bones; defeated, in exile and there was no hope. Their life as a nation was at and end.
The words which come forth from Ezekiel next must have therefore been a shock. For the vision does not end in grief and loss. Instead the vision is a word from God that God will breathe new life into God’s people. God will animate those dry bones and create a new and living people. For you and I living some twenty-five hundred years later these words are a reminder that God is never finished with us. God is never satisfied with where God’s people are. God knows that we are always capable of being more loving, more compassionate and more forgiving.
The question becomes for us…what does that new more Spirit filled community look like? Jesus offers us some glimpses but ultimately it is up to us to catch a vision of that new body. And so for the next few minutes you will hear about how the session of this church will be seeking your input into the vision which God would have us to follow.
A “ VISION “ DIALOGUE
Frederick and Sonny are middle-aged, but Frederick can be ten years older than Sonny. All three characters are FPC members. Trudi is about Sonny’s age. No special costuming is necessary.
Scene: the FPC sanctuary
Time: The present
Frederick is just seating himself in one of the sanctuary chairs. Sonny enters from stage right.
SONNY: How you doing today ?
FREDERICK:Can’t complain. What brings you to church on a Saturday?
S. We’re getting set up for the car wash out front.
F. Good luck. I’ll have to remember to put my car through
S. What’s your mission today, Frederick?
F. I was invited to attend one of those meetings about the new “vision” statement.
S. Good! I’ll be sitting in one of those next week.
F. Tell you the truth, I can’t get excited about any “ Vision”.
S. What? This church needs a vision, it needs to get off its duff.
F. Can’t agree with you there, Sonny , I say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
S. Look, a church that doesn’t examine itself and test itself from time to time as to whether it’s working as God would have us work in the world is a church that is stagnant. It will begin to lose membership and die.
F.So I have to get off my duff and do something different or this
Church will die ?
S.Well, we can probably afford a few backsliders and reactionaries like you, but most of us are going to have to look to the future and be more proactive in the world. God wants us to see the distress and suffering in the world and try to do more to reduce it.
F.So for you it sounds like a “ vision” is more outreach, more work and money expended as do-gooders.
S. Hey, “ do-gooder” is not a dirty word. Of course we’re here to Do Good, Christ taught us to do precisely that. You should want to do that as much as I do.
F. A. You know, your kind of vision is to me a departure from the religion I get from the Bible. What you really want is for us to become a chapter of Junior Achievers, or Boy and Girl Scouts. Of course there’s much suffering and distress in the world. On top of that, there’s treachery , terror, and injustice . You can’t ever put a dent in it, no matter how many car washes you have. I’m not saying our church shouldn’t identify with some good causes, social goals outside ourselves. But I don’t like the idea of importing the mores of the outside workplace into our church. People outside the church in this country have that drive to succeed, that competitive instinct. You want to whip us into shape the same way our business cadre whip up their salesmen and engineers. I want a different environment inside our church. Didn’t Christ say: “ Consider the lilies, they toil not neither do they spin” et cetera ?
S. Sounds like you want a very passive environment.
F. No, look, this big room we’re in, it’s called a sanctuary, that means it’s a refuge from the world outside. I think God wants us to come in out of the tumultuous world around us, and contemplate His serene and eternal word for us, not run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to make more points than the other guy in achieving social improvements.
S. You got that wrong. When our members go out to Alcott School they’re not running around with their heads cut off. That’s a very purposeful and dedicated mission that helps young students with less than average prospects of success in life. Our people make a difference there, they can feel it, and we feel good about it because we know it’s God’s work. You should get out there yourself and find out what it’s all about.
F. I’m not saying the Alcott thing is wrong, I think it is a very good thing, but I don’t like you and the others goading us into doing a second or third Alcott just because you think we have the capacity or energy to do more.
S. Sounds like the kind of “ vision” you’d vote for is one where we all put on dun-colored robes, trudge around in darkened church corridors and sing Gregorian chants.
F. Maybe you’ve got something there, Sonny. Maybe we should try that. Could you imagine yourself doing that? You might learn something from it and wind up feeling closer to God.
S. You know, Frederick , I’m beginning to think of you as a sort of indoor Christian. I think of myself as an outdoor Christian. You seem to resent and fear the “outside” world. Don’t you realize that the people who are all “whipped up”, as you say, who are ambitious, like to work and achieve , that’s basically who we are, that’s the kind of people who happen to populate this church, and the vision we make inside this church is quite naturally going to follow from the type of membership we have.
F. One of Christ’s big points is that we need to look hard at ourselves, consider what kind of people we are, and be ready to make changes, maybe radical changes.
S. I want to go back to what you said about not being able to make more than a dent in the misfortune around us. It may well be that there will be tons of poverty and injustice left when we get through with our car washes, but we have to do what we can, if we can only make a small dent, that’s what God wants us to do.
( pause )
F. Look, let’s allow for the moment that there could be a Vision statement and part of it could be devoted to outreach. Why does the church have to grow in only one direction? There could be a multiplicity of goals, and some of them could be focused on improving the individual church member’s spiritual awareness. What do you say to that?
S. I say that might be good, but you have to be careful that the statement doesn’t become “ all things for all men “. You read parts of the Book of Order and you can just tell, they’ve processed the statement through a host of committees, and the resultant pronouncement has a little something for everybody, nobody’s toes get stepped on by leaving something out.
F. What do you know, we agree on something. The statement that results from the process is offensive to no one but it’s so diffuse and flaccid that it doesn’t inspire anybody to do anything.
S. Well, you see, now you have a reason to jump into that next Vision committee meeting to try to keep that from happening.
F. Maybe I will. In fact, maybe I’ll become a little more outward-looking instead of inward. Try this one on for size. We’re just finishing up on buying a Two Million Dollar organ for ourselves. That was certainly a big goal or vision for those who put it together. I love that organ and I have nothing but praise for the people who pushed it through and are working to finish paying for it. The organ enriches our worship experience, and it will give us wonderful music for music’s own sake. Years after we’re gone people will come to First Presbyterian to hear that organ. But from your point of view, the organ isn’t going to do that much to relieve the suffering of the outside world. Did you know that over in Africa there are thousands of villages that are grubbing along without any source of potable water? Putting in one well will save one village from extinction, no less. Health levels will improve markedly, and they can get some real agriculture started with that well water. So how much does a well cost? Ten Thousand Dollars? I don’t know, but at that price I figure we could have saved 200 villages with one well apiece. By foregoing the organ, that is. Wouldn’t that have made Bill Gates sit up and take notice?
S.(very excited ) Yes! But we might have to scale down our Vision a bit. How about: “ Ten Villages, Ten Wells.” That’s it, that’s the Vision statement! I could get excited about that one !
F. . We might not get that one through, Sonny , but I do think our statement should have some punch and recognition to it. If we’re going to have a Vision statement, let’s have it be one that’s easy to understand and quickly arouses interest. I want it to be this kind of statement: You’re chatting with the check-out clerk at Krogers, and you say, “ By the way, our church has just come out with a new Vision statement.” Clerk: “ Oh ? “ You: “ Yes, and this is it “ – and you rattle it off for her. And her eyes go wide, and she says : “ Amen! That sounds like a heck of a church to me ! “
F. Let’s work on it !
Enter Trudi.
T. Hi! What are you guys up to ?
F. Oh hi, Trudi, we were just discussing the Vision project.
T.. Oh, that ! Let me know when it’s all over will you? They’re always wanting to come up with these goals or visions and in the end the church just keeps bobbling along. I’ll go along with it, whatever it is, it’s all the same to me. ( Starts to exit ).
F and S ( together) WAIT A MINUTE !
S. B. Sit down.
T. Huh?
F. We want to talk to you.
The End
While the skit has ended the work has not. Over the next couple of months you will be invited to help First Presbyterian Church discern the vision that God has for it. You will be able to do this in small groups, in written form or on line. I personally encourage all of you to pray, think and dream about the vision God has for this new and every renewing body of Christ.
