Grand Opening of HJ's Youth and Community Center
1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
We gather today to praise God for the gift
of resurrection, as we do throughout this season of Easter. But today, we see that gift in a particular
way as we celebrate what God and this congregation have done together over the
past six years, culminating in the new HJ’s Youth and Community Center, which
we open this morning.
I will resist the temptation to start at
the beginning of the story – as past senior warden Greg Bentz likes to say, I won’t take us back to, “First, the earth
cooled.” Suffice it to say that six
years ago, past-past senior warden Steve Rock and I began talking with Sean and
Sarah Murray, and Blake and Megan Hodges, about leading an effort to celebrate
our centennial and advance God’s mission at St. Andrew’s. At that point, both the Hodges and Murrays
had two preschool-aged kids running through the halls of the church – Evan and
Emma Murray, and Oliver and Charlotte Hodges.
Today, as we celebrate the culmination of the Hodges’ and Murrays’
efforts, Oliver Hodges is closer to dating age than to the first day of
kindergarten. Time flies when you’re
having fun.
There
are many thank-yous to offer, but we’ll save those for the ribbon-cutting at
the end of the service. What I hope to
do in the next few minutes is encourage you to see that building across the
street, and maybe see yourself, in a new way.
First, we have to go back to today’s
Gospel reading (not quite when the earth cooled). Last Sunday, we heard the story of Jesus appearing
to his friends on Easter night, as told in the Gospel of John. Today, we get the same story, as told by
Luke. Again, it’s only been a matter of
hours since Mary Magdalene and the other women found the empty tomb. A few hours after that, two disciples
encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, seeing him revealed as they broke
bread for dinner; and they ran back to Jerusalem to tell their friends. Now, as the disciples have come together
later that same night to share these incredible stories, “Jesus himself [stands]
among them” (Luke 24:36). How he got
there, the story doesn’t say, but his friends are “startled and terrified,”
thinking “they were seeing a ghost” (24:37).
Maybe they’re remembering that they didn’t exactly stand with Jesus when
the going got tough. Maybe they’re
afraid haunting is the punishment for their faithlessness. But Jesus assures them it’s really him, not
his ghost. “Touch me and see,” he says,
“for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have”
(24:39). By the way, he asks, do you
have anything to eat? Resurrection works
up your appetite.
It’s Jesus, all right – in the flesh. It’s the person his friends knew, complete
with wounds in his hands and feet and side.
He looks like himself and sounds like himself and still likes broiled
fish for dinner. But … he also walks
through locked doors. He breaks bread
with his friends and then vanishes into thin air. It’s Jesus, in his own body … but not exactly
the same body. It’s a resurrection body, the fulfillment of
what we’re created to be, even more in the image and likeness of the God who
made us, an in-breaking of heaven on earth.
What are the disciples supposed to do with that?
I think we’re experiencing something
similar with the new HJ’s. Hang with me
for a minute. I think this building is something
like a resurrection body … and we’re just beginning to see how it works and
what we’re supposed to do as we live into this new reality. Where, in the old building, we once struggled
just to hear each other talk in the “big room,” now we have state-of-the-art
sound and video. Where, in the old
building, we were lucky to find an aging coffee maker that worked, now we can
grind and serve our own blend of Roasterie coffee, for ourselves and for people
coming by. Where, in the old building,
we tried to keep the youth and Scouts out of the chamber of horrors that once was
the old Y’s locker rooms, now the youth and Scouts have beautiful spaces where
you’d actually want to invite a
friend. And to oversee the ministry that
will happen there, we’re blessed to have Jean Long taking on new
responsibilities as our minister for younger adults, youth, and families; and
just this week, we hired Zach Beall as our new community coordinator to oversee
HJ’s, and market the space, and build relationships with people who use it. You’ll meet Zach at HJ’s later this
morning. It’s all very, very new … and it’ll
take us all a little while to see how this resurrection body of HJ’s lives and
breathes.
But
it’s not just the building across the street that’s been made new. I would dare say that the Body of Christ in
this place, the family we know as St. Andrew’s, is beginning to stretch the sinews
of its resurrection body, too. We’re
learning that we are more than we sometimes imagine ourselves to be, in the day-to-day
grind of church life. We’re building our
muscles for mission to the people among whom God has placed us.
Those muscles have been strong
before. In the parish archives, there’s
an article from the Kansas City Star
about St. Andrew’s purchasing the Southtown YMCA in 1990. The early ’90s was a missional time in the
life of this congregation, under rector Jeff Black. The church also bought four houses just to its
south to put in a parking lot to help gather people for worship – and parishioners
moved those four houses, intact, across town on huge trucks, in the middle of
the night, to make the homes available to others through Habitat for
Humanity. That new parking lot made it
easier for people to come and be formed into the disciples Jesus wants us to
be, witnesses of the power of resurrection.
And the old Y across the street offered a point of connection with the
neighbors around us. In that article in
the Star, retired bishop of West
Missouri and St. Andrew’s member Arthur A. Vogel put it like this – and I know
some of us can still hear Bishop Vogel’s clear tenor voice saying it: “In God’s name, we are to make a difference
in the world. The purchase and use of
that property, we hope, will enable the presence of … St. Andrew’s … to make a
greater difference in the wider community around Southwest High. It will give the church a chance to have an
increased variety of services it can offer people, and we would hope that it
would become a center for wider community concern.”1
The idea was to draw people around us into
relationship with the God who loves them more than anything. That wasn’t just Jeff Black’s crazy idea or
Bishop Vogel’s crazy idea. That’s Jesus’
crazy idea. In the Gospel this morning,
as his friends are trying to figure out this resurrection body of his, Jesus
lets them know that, actually, the reality of resurrection has changed them,
too. Munching on broiled fish with his
friends around the table, Jesus opens their minds to understand that he is,
indeed, the messiah they’d been waiting for, despite his agony and apparent
failure on the cross – that he’s defeated sin and death for all time and offers
his friends eternal life starting right now.
And Jesus opens their hearts to understand themselves differently, too –
“that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations,”
he says, “beginning from Jerusalem,” beginning from the table where they sat
that night. “You are witnesses of these
things” (Luke 24:47-48).
And so are we. HJ’s is not just a shiny new toy, an
impressive conclusion to a capital campaign.
HJ’s is an icon – a window into heaven, an image of the mission God has
given us here: to proclaim the grace of Jesus Christ, empower people for
ministry, and serve people within and beyond our church. An icon helps us remember realities that lie
just at the edge of day-to-day life. It
helps us see the thin places where heaven and earth intersect, and where the
power of God breaks into this world whose boundaries we think we know. This icon across the street should remind us
– every time we look at it, every time we walk into it, every time we invite
someone else to come enjoy it – this icon across the street should remind us we
are witnesses of resurrection called to trust in the truth and the power of
God, called to invite others to experience life that’s more than the daily
grind. Resurrection bodies testify that
death is not the end, no matter how hard life can be. Resurrection bodies testify that God wants to
heal us of our brokenness, and make us jump to our feet in the power of new
life. Resurrection bodies testify that, even
though we may not yet see the kingdom of heaven in all its fullness, we will – for “we are God’s children now
… and when [Christ] is revealed, we will be like him” (1 John 3:2), healed,
renewed, and empowered to build healing relationships with others. We are witnesses of these things.
In fact, as we go into the new building
this morning, I invite you to experience the cloud of witnesses that is … us. Revel in the power and potential of the
family walking through those doors.
Check out the list of names near the coffee bar – 269 gifts from 433
members and friends of this congregation, the cloud of witnesses who made
Gather & Grow possible through their generosity. On that list, you’ll see the depth and breadth
of our parish family – witnesses as young as Emma Murray alongside witnesses
who now see Christ face to face, like Walt Walton, and Bob and Connie Smart,
and Deacon Peg Ruth. Equipped with our resurrection
bodies, empowered by hearts beating the rhythm of new life, we are sent by the
risen Christ to proclaim the astonishing truth of love we can barely fathom:
that God always gives us second chances, that God always longs to heal what
divides us, that God always welcomes us back home. Each time you see that building across the
street, or walk into its rooms, remember:
You are witnesses of these things.
1. Gray, Helen. “KC church buys the Southtown
YMCA.” Kansas City Star, June 9,
1990. F-10.
