A twenty-one year old from Carmel went missing. Have you followed that story? Thomas left a party in Fishkill early last Sunday morning but never arrived at the home of his mother, two hours north in Copake. By noon a missing person report went out. The search was on ... and each passing day, hopes got dimmer and the fears got grimmer. "Almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack," is how one person described it. After four days missing, the haystack started to shrink; the mobile phone of Thomas was sending a signal to a specific cell tower near the Taconic Parkway. Thursday afternoon they found him. He was filthy and covered with insects. He was very thirsty and thus he was alive. Thomas has some serious injuries, but considering the alternatives, the story has a happy ending. I went to his Facebook page (gosh, I never thought I'd be saying this in a sermon), I went to his Facebook page and scanned scores of well wishes. Most contained words like "miracle," "blessed," "Awesome God," and "thank you Jesus." I like the one that said, "God must have special plans for you life." Then again, God has special plans for us all. Our Burn the Mortgage campaign theme comes from Jeremiah 29:11: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD ... to give you a future with hope." Thanks be to God, Thomas has both a future and that hope!

Not all stories turn out well; not all stories have happy endings. But sometimes they do. Sometimes the endings are happy. And we hold onto such stories as harbingers of hope that the stories in our own lives might turn out well.

The young people of Grace attend several school districts and my guess is that come graduation day, just about every ceremony will include a moment of silence for a classmate who has died. Not all stories have happy endings; our young people are acquainted with grief. There is hardly a school unscathed by untimely death claiming the lives of young students - athletes and scholars and ordinary students, none of whom are ordinary to family or friends. Each youngster beating parents and teachers to the grave. Like that young lad in the Galilee village of Nain.

In the funeral procession that long ago day, certainly there were classmates shuffling slowly in the wake of the young boy's mother, a sad parade to the cemetery. Adults don't handle the death of a young person well. I mean, why should they? And who does? Classmates, I suspect, have an even tougher time. And so the entire village of Nain is a raw and open wound. When a young person dies it is like a period before the end of the sentence - and even the dullest of students knows, that's not right. That is just not right.

In this glimpse from our Gospel, however ... a strange thing happens on the way to the cemetery. Life intervenes. Never put a period where God means to place a comma. Even a dead-end is not always a dead-end. And though this young man unwittingly beats his mother to the grave ... life intervenes and the young man's journey is not yet over. Not by a long shot. Jesus commands and the young man obeys, "Young man, I say to you, arise."

I came across an adage which contains much truth, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away." And the irony of this young man coming back to the land of the living - the weird thing about him once more breathing - is that everyone who witnessed it must have been breathless! The young man breathes and the loved ones are breathless! Surely they use words like "miracle," "blessed," "Awesome God," and "thank you Jesus." And the funeral procession takes an unexpected detour from the burial tomb to the banquet room! And a child of the village has a future with hope! Even a dead-end is not a dead-end for one who has died in Christ, or in Gospel account, the dead-end is not dead-end. Not with Christ in the midst of the story! This narrative from Nain is a "Comma Story." The reminder, never place a period where God inserts a comma. Death - in the eyes of faith - is always read as a Comma Story.

The Church shares stories like this, Comma Stories, taking as her cue our basic statement of faith that Jesus "was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead (comma) and on the third day he rose again. Now, I know you might be flipping to page 105 in our hymnal and note that indeed there is a period following "he descended to the dead." But using poetic license, it is a comma - because our basic statement of faith confirms in no uncertain terms "on the third day he rose again." The Creed gives three cheers for the third day, and so do we! And because he lives, we shall live also!

Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear: the Second Sunday of Pentecost, 1997. That day, like today, was Pledge Sunday. Not "Burn the Mortgage" Pledge Sunday. Nope. It was "Build a Church" Pledge Sunday. The members of that congregation (many of whom are hear this morning) were challenged to support a vision, a vision some thought a pipe dream and were wondering what was in the pipe! But God knew the plans for us.

We had a vision ... one that would radically change the footprint and the future of Grace. Because this congregation generously and enthusiastically responded to the challenge - the vision merged with reality and building was built.

And now we want to pay off the mortgage in order that new dreams and visions might come to fruition! Why? So that this congregation might grow and continue to prosper. Why? So that you and I, and your children and my children, and your neighbors and my neighbors might hear the news of the Gospel. The story of how it is that God's comma writes a different ending to our lives. God's comma tells how your story and my story have the same ending. It ain't over until it's over - and it's still not over. Rather, we all live happily ever after.

In the past five months Grace has played host to six church funerals. Some of those funerals were large enough that the mourners would not have fit in our 1997 sanctuary. But all fit here and all were welcome. I can't tell you how many times in the last five months loved ones said to me something like, "Pastor, I could not have survived this without you." It doesn't bother me in the least to recognize what they are really saying is this: "Pastor Kennedy, because of this wonderful setting, large enough for our family and friends, you were able to share a story that gives us comfort and hope."

It is not my story; it is not my church. It is God's story and God's church and I was privileged to be able to share both! It is the central story of our faith and our future: it is the story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and three cheers for the third day! It is the story of "died and was buried" ... comma. It is the Easter story of that third day. We can not trust our soon-to-be-installed cell tower to emit the signal, "If you're searching for Jesus, the haystack is here! He is alive!" Rather, we need to be more intentional about searching out those who are searching for Jesus. Why pay off the mortgage? We have the vision that those searching for Jesus will find him in this place because of new ministries enabled through your support! Maybe a second pastor proficient in Facebook, searching out young adults; searching out young adults who are searching for Jesus and not knowing quite where to find him!

I'm too proud to beg (well, maybe). Let me just say thank you to those who have supported our vision through four capital campaigns. God has blessed us and our vision is now real - a much larger and more inviting facility, so that more may hear the story.

I'm too proud to beg (well, maybe). Let me just say thank you in advance for supporting us in this final campaign. You bought into the Vision of '97 - and you've almost paid for it. If every family pledges something - something - it will mean everything for the future of this congregation.

Let's burn that mortgage! Not a comma, not a period - an exclamation point. Let's burn that mortgage - enabling us to turn a new page in God's continuing story at Curry and Gomer! "For surely I know the plans I have for Grace, says the LORD, to give you a future with hope."