Gathering for a purpose

Gathered – Gathering for a Purpose

Week 1

By Rev. Maddi Baugous

Morning. Horizons. It is good to be with you today. My name is Maddie Boggess, and I am

the university minister at Nebraska Wesleyan University here in Lincoln, Nebraska. So I am

glad for this invitation that Maddie extended to me to preach and sort of set the stage for

this sermon series that's going to be taking place over the month of August.

And now I know, too, August, for me, means I'm counting down the days for when school

starts. We start in 22 days. I'm a little bit worried about it, but we got it. But we're going to be

talking today about what it looks like to gather as God's peoples. So before I begin, will you

just join me in a moment of prayer and centering?

Gracious and loving God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts

reveal your love and your transformational power. Together we pray. Amen. When thinking

about gathering, I think about the gatherings that I had throughout my life. The things that

were really impactful. And you may be thinking, oh, maybe it was a worship service,

something like that.

But no, where I go is two kids birthday parties, specifically the ones that I had as a kid,

because these were my favorite experiences. They were the best gatherings. I loved it

because my mom and my dad. My dad, I think helped a little bit, but my mom would always

let me, myself or my brother when it was our birthday, go and pick out whatever theme we

wanted.

Did anyone else sort of do this where you would go and you'd scroll through, like you'd stroll

through the aisle and you'd look at the different options for the plates and the party hats.

You always had to have the party hats that would match, and we'd always find then the

matching pinata that would go along with it. And my parents, too, would always allow for us

to pick whatever theme we wanted.

For myself, I remember one year I wanted a duck themed birthday party. Well, they didn't

make many duck pinatas, so we made out of paper mâché a duck pinata that we then had,

and the cake had a duck on it. My mom always made sure that every cake matched with

whatever theme it was. It was always the special gathering, the special celebration that

yes, there was the fun cake and the party supplies.

But there was also this gathering of friends, a family members. There was time for us to just

feel like, wow, this is really special. As a young kid, I'm grateful that there was such

intentionality, there was purpose, and that time that it made me feel loved. And maybe

you're thinking in your own life, those gatherings that you've had where you've just left

feeling like, wow, this is exactly what it's supposed to feel like.

Maybe it's a wedding or an anniversary. Maybe it's those birthday parties. Maybe it's a

worship service. But gathering together with others is central to what we are called to do as

humans. It is central to how we are to interact with others. We have to be with other people.

And I see that because I think God truly is relational at the center of who God is, even as

people of faith.

Every week we gather in a space to be with each other, because we know that this is what

we are meant to be. And I think that that is important as well for how God calls us to be in

relationship with one another, but also to be in relationship with us from the beginning of

time. God has established this.

God created Adam and knew that it was not good for him to be alone. So he gave him a

partner, someone that he could be in relationship with. And then God calls out to Abraham

and he tells him, I want to be in relationship with you. Hear these words from Genesis 12

the Lord said to Abraham, leave your land, your family, and your father's household for the

land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you

will be a blessing. All the families of the earth will be blessed because of you. God enters

into the world where Abraham is. God goes to Abraham and meets him exactly where he is.

And that moment. And God continues to do this because Abraham became the starting

point.

Abraham would lead. The people would start the story that we as Christians follow today

because God continues to enter into our own lives as God would. Then also go and see

Hagar in the desert and meet her. God would go to Moses in the burning bush and give

commandments that would change and shape the people. God would go to the leaders.

He would call out to Samuel and David to be people who would be strong and faithful. God

would use the voice of prophets to show what it is to stand up for justice. God has always

been speaking through us. God has always been meeting us where we are because God

wants to gather with us. And if there is no clearer example, it is through Jesus Christ.

When we celebrate Christmas, we may hear those songs of Emmanuel, which is God with

us. Jesus is entering into our world, our messy, broken world, and is willing to be a part of it.

And God didn't decide to send Jesus alone. No. He called out to Joseph and Mary and said,

care for Jesus. Care for him. And then as Jesus grew, Jesus invited others along in the

ministry.

Jesus continued to be in relationship with people because just as God had called out to

Abraham to lead the people, Jesus does the same through the disciples. In Matthew four he

says, as Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Simon, who is called

Peter, and Andrew, throwing nets into the sea because they were fishermen.

Come, follow me, he said, and I'll show you how to fish for people right away. They left their

nets and followed him. Jesus goes out to where they have been fishing. He goes out and

meets them to form that relationship. And two Jesus reminds his people how they can

gather, for he says, for where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I'm there with them.

See, God through Jesus and through us is all about gathering, just as Jesus would feed the

hungry would heal those even when it wasn't what he was supposed to be doing. He would

cast out evil spirits. He would continue to call people to be in relationship with him, to call

Peter, to be the foundation of the church, to call people like Mary Magdalene, to be the first

one to proclaim the good news of resurrection.

God would call out to Paul to write and encourage the early church. Jesus continued this

ministry to become part of the community, and so it's clear that as followers of God, we

have to gather. We have to be in community. We have to create that sense. We have to be

willing to go to the places and meet the people.

Well, I think that God has created this design for us to be in relationship with others, to

gather together. Let's be honest, people are messy community. It's complicated. It is not

always easy to gather. Sometimes there are times when we're with people where we really

wish we were not gathered together because they're saying certain things that we just don't

agree with.

Or there are even those moments of maybe the dreaded staff meeting that you have where

you're going, what are we doing here? Or maybe you're asking the question, do we really

have to have this meeting? Could you have just sent me an email? Anyone ever had that?

I've had my fair share those. But those times where we start to think maybe this gathering is

not exactly what we need, or maybe two, we've experienced it as well.

Those times where we are trying to be in relationship with other peoples, we are gathering

together, but we feel so disconnected. So we're sitting there. Maybe you're sitting now in

your chair and you're saying, I don't feel connected. I don't know if I belong in this space. I

don't know if this is where I'm supposed to be. Even when we are gathering with others, we

can feel lonely and isolated.

We can feel like we are unsure. We can always gathering together. It doesn't always feel like

it has any direction or purpose. A few years ago, I read Priya Parker's book the Art of

gathering. Has anyone read this book before? I know it's hard to see, but if you have, I know

for myself it was a very impactful book.

I read it before Covid, but the Art of gathering Parker talks a lot about how we can gather

better. And so Parker, some of her background is that she was a conflict resolution

facilitator. So she would be someone that if there was a conflict happening in a, in a

company, she would come in to help facilitate some of these dialogs.

And from her work, she was finding that she was really trying to create spaces where

people could be honest and vulnerable, where they needed to have those hard

conversations. And she found that sometimes people did not know how to gather together.

They didn't know how to actually be with one another. And in this book, she talks about how

for her, a gathering is any time you have three people, three or more people together, you

have a beginning, middle and end point of a gathering.

But the most important thing that she points out that every gathering needs, no matter

what, is that they have to have purpose. This is the why you're gathering. This is the

question of what is happening in this community. What is happening in this world, what is

going on that we need for her work? When she was a conflict facilitator, conflict resolution

facilitator, she was finding that the purpose was to make sure that people could

communicate with each other.

It was to open up dialog. But for others, our gatherings may have a different purpose. And I

think that that's the thing, too, that so often the spaces that we go into, we don't know what

we're doing. We have forgotten what is the purpose of this. Sometimes it can be so easy

that we just always have this meeting.

It's always scheduled, but we never discuss why. What is it that we need to discuss during

it? Why are we gathering to worship? What is it? And I think that that is where God's desire

for us to be in relationship, to gather us together, provides us with that purpose. Because

even in the church, we can fall trap into losing the sense of what our purpose is.

We can start to believe that our purpose is just to get as many people as we can into our

church, and that's it. We can start to believe that it is about relating the most to young

people. As a campus minister, I think I relate to this pretty often, where sometimes I think

that it is just about how many people can I count and then report back that I impact it in

ministry?

How many people did I talk to? Or I might start to think, how much Gen Z slang can I throw

in to my message to try and relate and bring in the young people? But then when I start to

be seeing this, my purpose becomes transactional. It becomes about, what can this other

person give to me? And all I care about is seeing them as a number.

But that is not what God's purpose is for us. That is not what God's designed for each of us

is because God's purpose is not one of transactional relationships. God's purpose is one of

transformational relationships. It is transformational gathering. I want to read again from

Genesis 12. I want you to hear this again, to understand what God is saying to Abraham.

The Lord said to Abraham, leave your land, your family, and your father's household for the

land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your

name respected, and you will be a blessing. All the families of the earth will be blessed

because of you. God is transforming Abraham's life.

He would. Even God even gives Abraham a new name of Abraham. God is saying to him, in

this moment, leave behind your family. Leave behind the land that you're on. Leave behind

everything that you know and transform your life. Come and follow and see what I will

provide because of this, because of Abraham and Sarah's faithfulness, their life is

transformed in ways they can't even imagine.

They would go on to have a child when they thought that that was not going to be part of

their plan, they would go on to further this nation to build up people who believed in the

ways of Yahweh, and they are led to a greater purpose, that is, not just to stay in the same

place that they are, but to go and to be transformed.

And again, let's read what Jesus says to the disciples as Jesus walked along side the

Galilee, Galilee, sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew,

throwing fishing nets into the sea because they were fishermen. Come, follow me, he said,

and I'll show you how to fish for people right away. They left their nets and followed him.

Their lives are transformed immediately. Simon Peter and Andrew's life are not going to be

the same. Yes, they may continue to fish, but now there's a different purpose that they

have. There is a different vision that they have for their own lives. And even two, Jesus

continues to show us what that means, what it is for us to have lives that are transformed,

warmed.

As Jesus clarifies this purpose, he answers questions about what is the greatest

commandment? Teacher? What is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied,

you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your

mind. The first and greatest commandment. And the second is like this you must love your

neighbor as yourself.

This is an invitation to transformational love, to being able to find that purpose that each of

us are called to, that when we gather. That is why we gather. It is not just to get a few more

people in the pews or in the seats. No, but it is to be transformed. The purpose may be the

same to show that love, but how we live that out, how we do that will vary by each of us.

I know for myself, when I was discerning my own call to ministry, I began to look at other

pastors and I started to see them and how they would preach or how they would interact

with people. I knew many pastors who were so good about just going up and being like,

hello, welcome, just so extroverted. And I was like, that is not me.

And I would start to think, do I need to be doing that? If I want to be a pastor? Is that the

gifts that I have to have? And then what I found is that what it was about was not me having

to be what I envisioned every other pastor to look like, but it was me finding what those gifts

are that God was already pouring into me.

That the ways in which God had created me to be unique, to fit in this time, I know I found

that for myself, that was true justice. It was working for. How can we talk about faith and the

impact we can make in the community? That was important to me. That was part of what it

is. Another thing that I found was that I really care about discipleship, about making sure

young people discover their own call to ministry, that they have a foundation of their faith.

That was what I was finding my own purpose could be. When I started to shift and realize

that it wasn't about the specific role that I had a fit, but when it was about using my own

unique gifts or what what I had as God's beloved, I became a different person where I could

more easily just say, yes, this is my mission.

This is my purpose for how I show that transformational love of God. Each of us have those

in us. You may not be a pastor, but you may have gifts that allow for you to show the

transformational love of God. Maybe it is through your understanding of science to help

people who are in need of healing. Maybe you're able to talk to children and to be able to

teach them and guide them, to help them understand topics better.

Your gifts can be used in artwork and writing and speaking it, and just having a good sense

of humor in your strong conviction to your moral to stand up for what you believe is right.

Each is needed. Each of these is part of what we need to bring when we gather to be a part

of that. Because God didn't just call people who are all the same.

Jesus didn't create disciples who all had the same gifts. No, he called out to those who had

different things, and he gathered them together because he knew that that diversity, that all

of them together could create something more beautiful, that they could work for God's

kingdom, that when they gather there was a purpose behind it, and they needed each of

them in it.

So I want to invite you to pause for a moment and to consider these two questions. What is

your purpose and who are you in God's story? What is your purpose and who are you and

God's story?

I'm sure you may not have an answer right now, but I want to invite you during this week and

across this next month as well, to think about the ways that God is calling you to be a part

of that transformational story, to be thinking about how you gather with other people, how

your interactions, how you can be a part of something that has meaning, that you can

remember that wherever 2 or 3 or more are gathered, that God is present in those moments

and that you have gifts to transform, to continue on the mission of God.

So as you discern how you may continue to join a group or to get involved in different ways,

we continue to foster that transformational love in every place and every meeting with

every person to gather in the unexpected places, to be willing to go where others are. For

myself, there's only one way that I think that we can.

Truly, there's one way that we can really experience this, and that is through gathering at the

communion table. When we gather at this table, it is a reminder of God's grace and