"Baba Yaga’s chicken feet house" – Paul Tkachenko
Two simple sentences in today’s gospel shapeour lives together as Christians. “Follow me,” Jesus said to Philip. Then Philip invited Nathanael to “Come and see.”
About forty-two years ago, right after I graduated from college, I set off on a journey, to a place I’d never even dreamed of going—on a three week study tour to at what was at that time the Soviet Union, followed by three weeks traveling in Europe.
What an adventure! Many of you know that Ben just happened to be on that same trip and the next April, we were married. And we’ve turned out to be partners in ministry in ways neither of us could have imagined all those years ago.
But back to the trip–
On that trip, I bought this little box, which I’ve treasured all these years. It’s an artistic interpretation of the house of Baba Yaga, a familiar character in Russian fairy tales.
Her house has legs!
You can see, if you look closely, that this little house on the box has those legs, and although it looks very comfortable in its setting, this house can move at will!
And the Church, the body of Christ in the world, has legs!
We, as the Church, must have legs and be willing to use them to do what Jesus asks of people right up front in the gospels, to follow him. God is always calling us to move out into the world as the body of Christ.
And when we say to others, “Come and see!” we aren’t talking just about our building, or our congregation at worship, or our food distribution.
We’re asking people to come and see what happens in a household of God when it remembers that it has legs, and follows Jesus out into the world to do the work of Jesus, hoping to be a part of God’s work of making Jesus visible and alive and active in the world.
If this little house on the box came running down my street and stopped in my yard, I’d be thrilled and maybe even a little freaked out!
I’d want to go in and explore it. It’s inviting. We want our physical spaces to be like that, places that people would want to go in and explore. Inhabiting old buildings, part of the fabric of this historic community of Port Royal, is one of the things that defines this congregation. We are part of all that has gone before.
We want our space, not just the buildings, but space in its broadest meaning, to be one that invites exploration and adventure as we go together out in the world to help make God’s life giving work through Jesus visible.
Today, during announcement time, when we have our congregational meeting, Vestry members and a few others are going to share some stories of St Peter’s on the move. And we’ll also hear some updates about what we’ve done to keep our buildings and grounds beautiful, because they are a visible witness to God alive and at work in the world.
If this house showed up in my yard, and I went in to explore, and if suddenly the house took off on its legs to somewhere new and unknown, I’d be scared to death, but thrilled at the same time!
Being part of this community is to come on in the house!
And then, get ready for this house with legs, St Peter’s, to take off and run! To carry us, scared to death, but full of expectation, thrilled by where God will be taking us to bring our message of hope as we follow Jesus.
Amen.