Once upon a time there was a village that had grown cold with tradition. Then a stranger came into town. She disturbed the status quo.

(CHOCOLAT)

Father Henri asks “Where will we find truth? That is our question for today.

I suppose last week your ears were burning. You were being talked about in San Diego. I was giving a speech at the School for Congregational Development.

I attended the worship service the evening before my talk. The preacher spoke about how difficult it is for congregations to change.

After worship, people gathered in the lobby. I was standing beside a group from United Methodist Communications. They were talking about church as “enclave”. One man said, “Many congregations are withdrawing, raising the drawbridge, retreating behind walls.” A woman said, ”Other churches are re-trenching. You are welcomed only if you profess the party line.”

A second woman winked at me and said, “That’s not true of all congregations. There’s St. Luke’s Church in Denver.” My breath caught! You were being talked about.

I suppose one of the reasons you were the subject of conversation was the description of St. Luke’s in the event brochure.

“This inclusive, mission-driven, postmodern congregation seeks to meet people where they are in their faith journey and excels in creativity and giving.”

Wow! You were being talked about!

The next morning, a clergy friend introduced me to the Conference. He approached the podium with several sheets of paper in his hand. Finally, I going to get an adequate introduction, I thought. Most places just say, “Well, here’s Janet.” Maybe, I thought, I’m going to get the full treatment, for the first time ever.

Jim, maybe he will mention that I have been twice honored as the sweetheart of Phi Mu Alpha, the music fraternity.

Or maybe that I am an honorary mayor of Beulah, Colorado.

Maybe he will mention that I have represented the United Methodist Church on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

I was all ready for this minister to give me an adequate introduction; but he stood up there, with all that bundle of paper, and said, “In the service of time, I think I’ll just go the heart of the matter and mention what is most important, and that is, that Rev. Forbes serves as pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.” I was pleased.

But afterwards, no one got it right.

A young man asked, “Do you have cattle on your ranch?

A girl from Los Angeles asked, “Can you see Old Faithful from your church?”

A man waved as I left. “I’ve been to Salt Lake City.”

They got the city wrong, they got the location wrong. But everybody was talking about you!

At the conference I learned that United Methodist Communications is broadcasting the “I Believe” series of television commercials beginning next Saturday. They want to cast a vision that is different from church as “enclave”.

It’s difficult to say “I believe.” Owning one’s faith is THE most stressful task of formation.

My journey to individuation did not begin until the age of 27. I was always the good girl, never rebelling, doing what others expected of me…until I divorced my husband. I felt that my church turned their backs, judging me. My mother hurt me when she said that no one in our family gets a divorce. I was angry at God that the Cinderella-Prince Charming scenario was a lie. I escaped my life by going to graduate school…to study religion. What a hypocrite I was, studying for a career in ministry when I didn’t trust God.

But I dug into my classes from a safe, intellectual distance, ignoring God. And yet, in the five years of my silence, God persisted. Gradually, the community loved me back into relationship by accepting me and challenging me to say, “I believe”.

Vienne moved into the village and opened a chocolaterie at the beginning of Lent. How inappropriate! But Vienne believed. She believed in the goodness of people. She welcomed the outcasts, even the gypsies. So the mayor launched a campaign to put her out of business. In this scene, Anouk, Vienne’s daughter, pressures her to conform.

(CHOCOLAT) 

As spiritual people, we experience different stages of faith as we go through life. They are like points on a spiral path that goes around a mountain repeatedly as it goes up the mountain.

These movements of faith describe not what a person believes, but how a person shapes belief.

Movement from one pattern to another is fueled by change. When the answers provided by one way of thinking no longer satisfy, the person is pushed into new thinking that offers more complexity, more flexibility.

Last week, I described Stage 3, “I Believe What the Church Believes”, an immensely comforting, yet largely unexamined faith.

This week, we are led to the edge of the wilderness and asked to take responsibility for our beliefs, to own our faith. The Hebrew people have been delivered from slavery in Egypt. They are standing at the edge of the wilderness trying to determine who they are. God goes with them, in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They are not abandoned. But the wilderness is dangerous and lonely.

AS I SEE IT, GOD IS… *Young adulthood through adulthood

I taught the college age class at West End. The young people were undergraduates at Vanderbilt University. At school, they were challenged by new ways of thinking, both in the classroom and with students from differing backgrounds.

*Conflicting authorities

For many, this shift from home to university is matched by a readiness to grow in faith. The shift is fueled when new authorities argue as convincingly as authorities from home

*Confusion and distrust

Confusion and distrust of all authorities follow. But, over a period of years, most are able to assume responsibility for their own judgments.

*Move from conformity to individuality

In this stage, there is a movement from conformity to individuality, from unexamined loyalty to reflection on different points of view, from being what others want them to be to being the person they are.

There are other ways to leave home, of course, even when one stays in the same house, by dating, or working, or enlisting.

The shift to individuality is more difficult for someone in their thirties or forties. By that time, expectations have been set. That change is usually fueled by a crisis: divorce, job loss, sexual identity, death of a loved one.

*How one thinks about faith may change more than the content of faith.

The content of faith may not shift at all. How one thinks about what one believes can change even though the content of faith remains the same.

*Propositions over poetry

In this season, there is a preference for fact over poetry,

*Explicit meanings over symbols

a preference for meaning over symbol,

*Abstract knowledge over sense of mystery

a preference for knowledge over mystery.

*As much LOSS as GAIN

This is as much loss as gain. Stage 4 can be confusing and lonely.

So, why do I consider faith formation so important?

Because those folks in San Diego are correct.

Some churches are forming enclaves, either withdrawing or entrenching.

St. Luke’s is an inclusive, mission-driven congregation that seeks to meet people where they are and excels in creativity and giving.

With these gifts, I believe that God wants us to transform society.

This year, we are setting the stage. Next year, in our 25th year, we will challenge the city of Denver to make its compassion known.

The name, St. Luke’s, will be synonymous with generosity.

So we need to get ready. We need to invest more, study more, pray more.

Take a class. Participate in the arts. Welcome the stranger. Care for each other.

I believe that God has called St. Luke’s to disturb the status quo and to make a difference.

(DVD: Diversity Television Commercial )

I believe there is a church that believes these things.

San Diego does, too.

Do you?