Sermon: Casting a Vision by Rev. June Fothergill   September 11, 2016 Scriptures:  Proverbs 29: 18 (KJV) Acts 2: 17 Well, I was looking for jokes about vision to start this sermon and discovered several ways to have vision. In one a man is trying to get ideas for how to grow their Sunday School Class by using an old fashioned easel and paper for all the great ideas people will come up with. What did they come up with?  Coffee, More Coffee and Better Coffee! And then there’s Charlie Brown’s little sister Lucy who hears a snippet on the TV which is actually about  a man’s golf game but she hears it  differently.  “There’s no tomorrow” OH no!  She thinks. “There’s no tomorrow?  “She rushes out the door yelling her vision of the non future to all her friends, “They just announce on TV that there’s no tomorrow!  Panic, panic Run Hide Flee, Run for the ills, Flee to the valleys Run to the Roof tops. “She and Linus and Snoopy end up on top his dog house in great dismay. Then, there’s my favorite one about a personal vision.  During a party the older bachelor gathered up sufficient courage to discuss marriage with his girlfriend.  “Here comes a time when one longs for the companionship of another being,” He said. “ A being who will regard one as perfect, as an idol ; who will be kind and faithful when times are hard; who will share one’s life and sorrows.” His girlfriend looked at him excitedly, “Oh, let me help you choose a pet dog.” So, sharing visions can be rather tricky!  Yet as the wise writer of Proverbs observed without a vision the people perish. Without a sense that we have a future, that we can trust God for our future, we get discouraged and apathetic.   My hope is that a shared vision can give us common purpose and direction. Yet, I know that vision is not just something I can invent.  It is a gift of God to the community.   So today I humbly, share with you some of my sense of vision for our congregation. Ecclesiastes 11:1 in the King James Version says, “Cast your bread upon the waters…”   That’s what I‘m doing this morning with my vision for Ebbert. I want to share with you my picture of what we can become.  I’m casting it out to you expecting it to reverberate around so you can add your own ideas and reactions, arguments and questions. And then as Ecclesiastes promises, it will come back to us all, strengthened by our shared wisdom and discernment. I think that we at...