June 9, 2024

Have you ever dreamt of building your own home? In this world of hgtv and chip and Joanna Gaines, I wouldn't be surprised. Even though I don't watch HGTV anymore, every year that their dream home sweepstakes comes out I enter.  The homes are just so beautiful incredibly built, with the latest technology and always located in the most gorgeous spots.

I love my house but still Its fun to imagine… What if? What would life be like to live in a perfect dream home?

In the same way I’ve long had a hobby of following architecture youtubers. They are folks who travel the world searching for innovative new houses. Buildings that explore really interesting concepts or are on the cutting edge of sustainability. Some of my favorite homes that I’ve seen are homes built by an architect for themselves to live in.

Its always amazing to see what an architect does when they get to build their own dream homes. To see what happens when they build their ideal space without any constraints on their creative freedom or ability to explore a concept.

Although one thing i’ve noticed in these videos, a universal truth almost is that there is no such thing as a home built without limitations or constraints. Even the most meticulous plan, the most skilled architect, runs into limitations. Budget realities might force you to downsize the dream kitchen. Building timelines can get stretched, meaning that perfect reading nook might not get the ideal afternoon sun you envisioned. And even if the most perfect dream home is achieved time shows no mercy. Even Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, falling waters is showing its age after 89 years and a whole foundation to keep it running as a museum.

This week, in 2 Corinthians, Paul shares a similar perspective. He talks about our lives here on Earth as "earthly tents." These tents, like our homes, like dream homes, like anything built by humanity, are temporary and imperfect.  Paul, however, offers a message of incredible hope. He reminds us that these earthly tents, though temporary and flawed, are not all we have. He says, "If the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house not made with hands, which is in heaven." Imagine that! Not a fixer-upper, not a temporary solution, but a permanent, perfect dwelling place designed by the ultimate architect, God.

Which reminds me of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, Virginia [slide]. You probably don’t know it. I didn't before I got to accompany a choir tour who gave a concert there. Its a stunning structure outside of DC. Built by the Mellon family,  as in Carnegie-Mellon. They toured us through the grounds and shared how the church was built. They brought in expert craftsmen from around the world in order to build a perfect replica of a British country church. They quarried the stone from the site and even built an iron works to crafts the tools they needed to do the work. No expense was spared and every detail was considered. [Slide] It is a pristine example of what humanity can build and do when enough resources are put towards it.

Except when they take you into the narthex outside of the sanctuary and tell you to look up. {slide]

And they say… Do you notice how the beam is perfectly symmetrical to the room, but the room is not perfectly symmetrical to the front door of the church?

The did this on purpose to serve as a reminder that humanity cannot build perfection, only God can achieve that. The architects wanted the reminder built into the structure that even our most shining and glorious examples will be flawed. They will fall short, they will be imperfect, they will fail. So what’s the next step? What do we do when we realize life can never be perfected, that we will continue to face adversity and struggle. That things fall apart? We fall back on grace, and mercy. We trust in our God who is eternal finds perfection in the imperfection.

Some earthly tents might look like they have it all together and are perfected from the outside. Some tents may look like dream homes. Some people may have a facade of beauty and grandeur and some super human ability to achieve what we cannot.

But just like that church's intentionally misaligned room, No matter what our outsides look like we are all flawed and imperfect. We face challenges and setbacks, we age and fall apart, We get sick, we get injured, we yearn for something more. Its what it means to inhabit an earthly tent. Its what it means to be human.

Paul tells us this not that we might ignore the struggles of our earthly lives and focus on our heavenly home. In fact, Paul suggests that these challenges, these imperfections, can actually strengthen our faith.

When we acknowledge and understand our limitations we can build something beautiful.

I think when you talk to any architect, or artist, or musician, or creative of any kind you will always find that there most creative work was when they were younger, when their resources were less than ideal… when their budgets were smaller, when they had to work within constraints. Limitations can be a good thing, they can be the breading ground for creative solutions that we would have never thought possible. When we acknowledge that we fallible, flawed, and imperfect we make space for God’s creativity to move within our life. We make space for the architect of eternal homes to start building.

May we see our limitations and not be discouraged because grace reigns, and God is at work on an eternal home that has more than enough space for all, and will meet our every need.

May it be so, Amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                              “Fantasia Appassionata”                                        Kevin Costley

INTROIT                           “This is The Day”                                         Pablo Sosa 

WELCOME                                                                                                 Rev. Trip Porch

  One: This is the day that the Lord has made

  All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it                         

*CALL TO WORSHIP   

Steadfast God, you constantly surprise us with unprecedented grace and unexpected redemption, forgiving us when we least deserve it, showing love to those we most despise. Enliven us to keep watch for your love at work where we least expect it, for your power in those we look down upon, and for your deliverance from all the imperfect structures and systems we have built. All this we pray through Jesus Christ, who called us to a new way of being. Amen 

*HYMN 402                                      “How Lovely, Lord, How Lovely”                                  MERLE’S TUNE 

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                                           Peter Maurath

All: Faithful God, We grieve with those who feel abandoned and lonely,
One:  marginalized because of who they are, poverty-stricken or unhoused,
           left behind by systems of privilege and power.
All:  We lament our attempts to make you in our image
          rather than seeking to reflect your love.
One:  We confess forgetting that we are all your beloved children.
All:  We confess looking elsewhere for the security that can come only from you,
One:  and in so doing, causing others to face physical, spiritual, and emotional violence.
All:  We confess maintaining structures and systems because they are convenient or we are tired.
One:  May we find our identity in you,
All:  and in that identity, find solidarity with all those you love, O God. Amen

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON

*RESPONSE OF PRAISE 695              “Change My Heart, O God”                     CHANGE MY HEART

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                       

       One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

All:      And also with you.

 WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD                    

ANTHEM                                       “With a Voice of Singing”                                             Martin Shaw                                                                       

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION                       

SCRIPTURE  2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1    Adapted from the New Living Translation

But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” Here’s what we believe: We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and we will be brought into his presence along with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, it will cause gratitude to increase, which results in God’s glory.

That is why we never give up. Though our outer bodies are dying, our inner spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God’s own hands and not by human hands.

Holy Wisdom, Holy Word

Thanks be to God

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE                                                                                                          Ruth Harold

SERMON                                                                                                   Rev. Trip Porch 

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN  insert                                     “Do Lord”                                                   DITMUS     

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE followed by The Lord’s Prayer                                            

TIME OF OFFERING  online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

On Sundays where African American Spirituals are sung, Any loose offering will go to support the Columbus Cultural Orchestra, whose mission is to advance a collective of multi-generational       musicians of color by performing high-quality jazz, classical, and hip-hop music.

OFFERTORY                          “Little Miracles”                                       Lindy Kerby

OFFERTORY RESPONSE  710     “We Lift Our Voices”                                   OFFERING                      

PRAYER OF DEDICATION 

As we offer our treasure, our hearts, and our lives to you, O God, may they be used to pass on the promise of hope, of peace, of justice, of community to all in need of your gifts and presence in their lives. Amen.

*HYMN 301                                  “Let Us Build a House”                                         TWO OAKS

TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING  

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE                           “Each Life that Touches Ours for Good”                A. Lawrence Lyon                            

                                                                                                                                       arr. Summer Decker Nelso

Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452