SERMON, PROPER 24B, MARK10:35-45 (Delivered at Church of the Nativity)

"Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all."

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

You've no doubt noticed by now that I am not Brenda. In case you missed it, Brenda and I are on a "pulpit-swap" this morning. My wife and I are here as representatives of the Commission on Mission Planning; and while we are here, Brenda is now at Christ Church and then will do the second service in Virginia City (at least I hope that's where she's at).

We are here because your vestry asked us to come and work with you on developing ideas about church growth and mission. Several months ago we came and met with the vestry about this very topic. The sense that we both got from that meeting was that Nativity was ready for something new, ready to move forward. You seem to be on the cusp of whatever that something is, and people are excited about it. And that shows in the simple fact of where we are worshiping -- in a rented building that belongs to the Elks. You all have taken a big gamble by selling the old building and meeting here, all the while looking for and working towards a new space you can call your own.

As I was thinking about all of this, it struck me that "Nativity" is a good name for this congregation. Nativity. You are moving through the laborious process of self-identification and working towards the birth of something new and exciting. Nativity. In another time and another place, a young woman moved through her own labor and gave birth to something new and exciting. Nativity. We will celebrate that very event in just over two months, and I would hope that that will have a new and different meaning for this congregation. Nativity.

So we are here to help you give birth to your identity. And what is this identity? I don't have a clue. I have some ideas based on the meeting with the vestry, but those conclusions are based on what happened then and they are not set in stone. Chances are that none of you know what this identity is either. You probably all have an idea of what is needed or wanted, but there are probably as many different answers as there are people. The plan is that we will help you work through the process in an effort to get focused.

Let me make an assumption here: I'm willing to bet that the number one question on your minds is, "How do we grow the parish?" Regardless of your various ideas, I'm betting that all of them are informed by the thought of getting bigger. You would like more people, more kids, more programs, more pledges. In short, you want to grow. But growth is a funny and multi-facted thing; and that is what we are going to work on later today.

So you have all of these ideas running around your heads and being talked about amongst yourselves. Then somebody from the parish attends a workshop at the cathedral, hears my presentation and says, "THAT'S what we need!" And before you can say 'Commission on Mission Planning', my wife and I are meeting with your vestry. The vestry was apparently engergized enough by what we accomplished that they invited us back to meet with all of you. And those of you who weren't at that meeting are now waiting for us to answer the question, "How do we grow this parish?"

I have a couple of questions to ask you first.

The first is a variation of what Jesus said when he responded to James and John, "Do you really know what you are asking?"

The second is an attempt to get at the heart of the matter, "Why do you want to grow?"

Why do you want to grow? Is the thought that if you had more members you would have more money and could afford the new building? Is there a little bit of jealousy over larger parishes in town? Is there some envy over bigger buildings, more parking, more programs and more kids? Do you want to grow so you can be seen as The First Episcopal Mega-Church of Helena?

Why do you want to grow?

We often attribute growth with greatness. The great empires and nations of the world all grew into those roles. A sport grows in popularity and becomes great. A person grows into a role and becomes great. But our vision of greatness is not necessarily God's vision of greatness.

Instead of growing and becoming great because of our numbers or programs or budget or building, Jesus tells us that if we are to become great we must become servants. We are not here to build The First Episcopal Mega-Church of Helena. We are not here to wrangle up more people in our pews. And we are certainly not here to lay claim to sitting on Jesus' right and left hands. We are here to serve.

If we -- if you -- are to become truly great in Helena, then you must be prepared to serve. Being first doesn't mean being the biggest or most active or having the highest body count on Sunday mornings. Being first means becoming servants and slaves to all.

My wife and I are not here to help you grow. We are not part of some grand Church Growth Planning Committee. We are part of the Commission on Mission Planning. We are here to help you talk about mission and how you might best accomplish that.

The question you need to be asking yourselves, then, is not, "How will we grow?"

The question you need to be asking yourselves is, "How will we serve?

Amen.