I spent last Thursday through Saturday on the campus of The Scarritt Bennett Center (www.scarrittbennett.org) in Nashville, TN. I was there as part of a design team working on an event for next April entitled A River Deep and Wide. The purpose of the event/conference is to offer a spiritual formation experience in the Christian Tradition as it enters the increasingly complex religious and spiritual environment of the 21st century and to offer a time of dialogue within the wider ecumenical Christian family as well as with neighbors and friends from other faith traditions. But more about this will be forth coming in later posts.
For those unfamiliar with Scarritt Bennett it looks a lot like Duke’s campus (Gothic architectural style) except not nearly as big and the stone is the color of Tennessee sandstone rather than various shades of gray. It is a beautiful campus. As my team moved around the campus I couldn’t help but notice that over many of the archways there were powerful yet short inscriptions. One was “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. Another was “The World is my Parish”. But the one that stopped me in my tracks and continues to flash through my mind is “Expect great things from God.”
How simple and yet how profound, “Expect great things from God”. I must confess that it is not in my general nature to walk around simply expecting, looking for, and or waiting for God to do great things. I have just not been conditioned and or formed to think that way. Why is that? After all do we not have a record of God doing great things? Just read through Scripture and you will find story after story of God doing…great things! In deeper moments of reflection when I look back over my own life or that of the life of the church I serve I can see that yes indeed God is most certainly in the business of doing great things. So then why do I not walk around and or live with a greater sense of expectancy and hope that at any moment God is about to do another great thing?
The truth is God is doing great things all around us all day long if we will but pause to take notice. God is doing great things at St. Mark’s UMC. Sixteen plus folks are participating in our new members class entitled “Exploring the Way”. Forty one folks are engaged in Disciple I Bible Study. Generosity is breaking forth on multiple fronts. On Sunday as we started to sing the Doxology I moved into place to receive the offering but alas no usher came forward. Why? They had not finished with the collection. The offering was so large and so generous it took the ushers a few extra moments to gather it all in. The generosity of God’s people in this place will allow this faith community to do even great things in the days ahead.
In closing, do you live with the mindset of expectation that God will do great things? If not, why not? Let us never forget the nature of our God. God has done great things, is doing great things, and will continue to do great things in order that the Kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. May we go forth to look for and give voice to the great things God is doing in the world.
