Angels and Tracy and Journeys

September 27, 2014: Angels and Tracy and Journeys
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp21_RCL.html
and
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC/HolyDays/Michael.html


The God of the Bible is a God of journeys.

When we are on the road, we are most ourselves.

The People of God do not do well if they stay in one place.

Think about Jacob in today’s reading. He is running from home, running from his swindling of his father and his brother, running from his brother’s revenge. Alone and frightened, he lays down to sleep. He does not expect or even deserve what happens next. A vision of angels, a ladder to heaven, and a Voice that promises him companionship and an amazing future when he returns.

When we are on the road, when we least expect it, when we are tired and spent, angels appear. Perhaps they were always there, but we were too comfortable and distracted to pay attention to them. We need to be on the road, taking the chance, leaving aside what is familiar to take what God will offer the traveler who trusts in God.

There are no guarantees. But there is a promise: presence and faithfulness, companionship on the road, surprising welcome at journey’s end.

Well, this congregation is on a road, one of the boldest and most trusting roads that I have ever known a church to take. We do well to remember that the God of the Bible is a God of the road, a God who sends angels to travelers and who gives no guarantees, but instead makes a promise.

And Deacon Tracy is on a road as well. Tracy has been one of the most faithful of presences among us. All around us are evidence of her ministry—in the lives of our children and youth, in our ongoing presence to and with the poor of 82nd Avenue, in the journeys of those whom she has companioned, even the family area at the rear of the church. Tracy and Jim were one of my first “young adults” to arrive back in the late 1990’s. Tracy’s diaconal vocation was born here and here she has grown, and we have grown along with her.

But Tracy has chosen a new path even while this congregation has chosen a new path. Tracy will give her considerable gifts and talents to the people of God as she has done here. In fact Tracy is not going far at all—she is going to serve St. Matthew’s, a congregation here on the East side, one of the congregations with whom we share life and ministry and one of the congregations with whom we shall share much more in the months and years to come. The Eastside churches are being bound more and more closely both by need as well as by mission and gift. It is possible that we shall see more of Tracy around and about as we change and grow.

But still, there is a parting and a new road. It is sad and yet it is sweet.

The sadness is that Tracy’s well-loved presence will be absent on Sunday mornings here. The sweetness is found in the opportunity we all have to commit ourselves to the God of journeys, the biblical God, and to prepare well. Travelers, especially pilgrims, learn how to prepare and how to pack light.

We all take Paul’s words as our packing instructions. Our journey is Christ’s, who emptied himself, took the form of a servants, and embraced his mission, even to the cross.

So we take our leave of one another, but we take the same God. We take this moment to divest ourselves of anything we do not need to carry—regrets, anything unhealed or unreconciled. We embrace one another in thanks, asking one another for blessing, inviting the God of journeys to go with us all. We each continue to work out our salvation “with fear and trembling”, because it is no ordinary journey we all take. We journey into service and companionship with Christ.

Travel light, travel with God. Welcome the surprising companions along the way. Welcome the workers, especially those who seemed to say “no” but now are here. They are often the best workers of all. Welcome the angels who reveal themselves as well, the angels who may have been here the whole time but only now, as poor and vulnerable travelers, can we see in their beauty.

Let’s welcome one another to this moment of journey and change.