The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Today is the day of our Annual Meeting--which is why we are having one service at 9 o'clock--and which marks in some ways the formal beginning of our mission and ministry for 2007. 2007 is the year of our sixtieth anniversary: it was in 1947 that St George's was incorporated as a parish, and that makes us, collectively, sixty years old. As individuals, some of us are older than sixty, some of us are younger than sixty, and some of us are just beginning to see sixty on the horizon--but together, as a parish, we've been around now for sixty years. And in a day and age when corporate entities come and go, sometimes with startling rapidity, being here for sixty years is something to be proud and grateful for.

But having a sixtieth birthday as a parish also brings some challenges. Congregations are like living systems: they have life cycles, they go through changes as they move from birth through childhood through adolescence through maturity--and at these different stages of development, new challenges and new possibilities arise. At a significant milestone like sixty years, St George's can look at where we are in our parish life cycle, and what challenges and opportunities open up for us in this unique moment.

For months now parish leaders--Vestry, Wardens, clergy, lay leaders--have been saying that St George's needs to grow. For months now parish members have been chewing on the idea that growth requires change: genuine growth, real growth, is not about simply adding on more of the same, but genuine growth is about becoming new. An acorn doesn't grow by becoming a bigger acorn, but by changing into something it hasn't been before--a shoot, a sapling, an oak tree. Similarly, as a living system, St George's won't grow by adding on more of the same--the same sort of people, the same sort of services, the same sort of committees and structures and institutions--but by becoming something we haven't been before, by evolving new ways of being church with new people who have new kinds of social and spiritual needs. It's part of the life cycle: when a congregation reaches a certain plateau of maturity and stability, it can either redefine itself and begin a new cycle of growth, or it can try to maintain its stability, try to do just more of the same--and because that is not a genuine growth, it always ends up being a decline. And when decline sets in, the only way back to genuine growth is through a process of redevelopment or rebuilding--a process that involves more than just gaining new information or new ideas, but a process that involves envisioning a whole new purpose, a whole new direction for the parish system.

I believe that, at sixty years old, St George's is in need of rebuilding. Let's be honest: we've all seen the signs of decline. Our attendance is down: three or four years ago we were averaging 100-120 people in church on a Sunday; now we get between 70-90, maybe 80-100 at our two services. Our pledge giving is down: actually, many individuals and families are giving more than they used to, but we have fewer individuals and families, so the net giving has gone down--and it's even more down if you take inflation and cost of living adjustments into account. You'll see all that in the financial reports during the Annual Meeting. Our participation is down: we work hard at keeping up lots of programs and committees and Sunday School classes and activities, but we seem to have fewer and fewer volunteers coming forward to do those things, fewer and fewer people involved in the active ministries of our parish, both within and without our walls. We do good stuff here--don't get me wrong--but the fact is we have fewer people working harder to make that good stuff happen. St George's is in a period of decline. It's hard for me to say those words--it's probably hard for you to hear them--but it would be harder still to live with that truth if it went unsaid.

And when a congregation is in decline, the answer is to redevelop, the answer is to rebuild. Arlin Routhage, who has written extensively on the parish life cycle, says that redevelopment means the "restatement of strategy and vision" for a congregation. He says that redevelopment involves asking tough questions like "Why do we have this building and these traditions? Why do we have a pastor? Where is our neighborhood? Are we the same church that our founders envisioned?" For St George's at sixty years old, that is a live question. We still have founding members in our congregation; we still have some living memory of what it was like at St George's beginning. But a lot has changed in sixty years, and it is worth asking if we are the same church now that we set out to be, or if God is calling us to become a new church for a new time. Asking those questions, and being really honest, really truthful about the answers, and then doing something about the answers--that is how congregations redevelop and rebuild. That is how St George's will redevelop and rebuild.

And that can be difficult and daunting work. It can seem like such a huge task, it can feel like such an overwhelming challenge--especially when it feels like we're already running at full speed just to stay where we are. How can we ever do this? Where will we ever find the strength?

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

That's the message that comes to us, at St George's, in 2007, from our reading from Nehemiah today. The joy of the Lord is our strength. You see, Nehemiah's people also faced a huge task of rebuilding. The people of Israel had been in exile for seventy years, their home in Jerusalem laid waste, their Temple to the Lord shattered and in ruins. Then the Persian Emperor Cyrus allowed them to go home, and a few years later Emperor Artaxerxes gave them a charter to rebuild. Nehemiah was the governor who oversaw the rebuilding project. They started rebuilding with the city wall. But there never seemed to be enough money: they had pay to to quarry new stone and to buy new timbers for the gates, and they took up successive collections of gold and silver and precious garments from the people to cover it, but the costs always seemed to outrun the giving. And there were never enough people to do the work: all the clans of all the tribes contributed workers to the wall, and they were organized so that each group built a section of the wall all the way around the city; but the population of returnees was so much smaller than the original population of the city, and it seemed like there was always more work than there were workers. And even when they finished the wall, when they'd completed the gates and made the city secure, they turned around and looked at was inside the wall--and the houses were still in ruins and the Temple was still burned down to the ground and there was still so much more rebuilding to do. They'd worked so hard, yet there was still so much more to do.

And that was when Ezra the priest called all the people together and read to them from the Book of the Law. It was the first time in seventy years that God's commandment and God's covenant had been proclaimed in that place. It was meant to be a celebration of their accomplishment. But according to the story, when the people heard the Law, they wept. When they heard the Law they were filled with sadness and grief and mourning. Maybe the reading of the Law reminded them of the glory that Jerusalem had been in the past, and made them feel a terrible emptiness for everything they had lost. Maybe the reading of the Law revealed to them what God was calling them to be in the future, and made them feel it was so far off, so difficult to live up to, that they could never ever hope to get there. For whatever reason, the people wept. They wept until Ezra said: Do not weep. Do not mourn. This commandment of God to you, this covenant of God with you is a joy. This law of the Lord revives your soul; this testimony of the Lord gives you wisdom; this statute of the Lord rejoices your heart; this commandment of the Lord makes you partners in God's creative work in the world. Just like the whole creation comes forth at God's command, just like the heavens declare the glory of God, just like the firmament shows God's handiwork, just like the days and nights tell their tales of God's goodness--so this commandment makes you partners in creation with God. Partnering in creation with God is your joy. And that joy gives you strength. That joy gives you strength to rebuild, strength to make the old things new, strength to do new things in justice and peace and community in God.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

And that's God's message for us, too. If we at St George's need to begin rebuilding, then we need to begin rebuilding with joy. Nehemiah's people in Jerusalem began by digging down to the foundations, pulling out the stones that they could reuse to rebuild the wall. In a sense we need to dig down to our foundations, too. What are the things at the heart of St George's that fill us with joy? Deeper than anxieties about attendance or pledging or volunteers, what are the foundational things that fill us with joy? Where are the places in the life of St George's where we feel the presence of God, where we are filled with the joy of the Lord? I don't mean just what makes us feel nice or cozy or comfortable or pleasant--but what fills us with joy? What lifts us up out of ourselves with a rejoicing that is bigger than we are, a rejoicing we can't just keep to ourselves but which we must, must share by bringing joy into the lives of others? Where in St George's do we feel the kind of transcendent joy that comes from being many members in one body, joy that comes from reconciling our differences so that none of us are the same but all of us are together, joy that comes from loving and being loved in a community that is bigger than we ourselves? Where in St George's do we feel the kind of transcendent joy that comes from being anointed with the Spirit of the Lord so that we can bring good news to the poor and release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and the proclamation of the favor of God? How has St George's been for you a place where you have felt a joy that comes from being a partner with God in the very work of creation? Take a moment right now and think of one time when being involved with St George's has opened up that kind of joy for you. Can you think of such a moment? Can you? Then think of this: moments of joy like that come when we are doing the basic practices Jesus calls us to do. Moments of joy like that come when we are praying, discerning, testifying, healing, worshiping, practicing hospitality, embracing diversity, thinking theologically, working for justice, making peace. Moments of joy like that come from digging down to the foundations of faith and doing the practices Jesus shows us how to do. Practicing the joy of our Lord is what congregations are for. Practicing the joy of our Lord is what gives congregations strength. Practicing the joy of our Lord is what gives us the strength to rebuild.

The joy of the Lord is our strength. So on this day of the Annual Meeting, in this year 2007 when St George's turns sixty years old, in this time of rebuilding and parish redevelopment, now, here--let us be joyful, let us be strong.