"The First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, is a growing downtown church with a citywide membership and a worldwide mission. People from all walks of life, and all parts of greater Columbus, call First Church their spiritual home. We aim: to reach an ever-widening circle of people, at the point of their need, with the transforming love of Jesus Christ."
Reaching an Ever-Widening Circle
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
November 3, 1996
Memory Verse: "And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" Revelation 21:5a
Today's Texts: Isaiah 43:1, 5-12 and Acts 1:1-11
Opening Prayer: O God, we have come here to be made new by the power of your word. Refresh our souls and rekindle our spirits. Make us your church in the world. Amen.
This month marks the end of the season of Pentecost, the time in the Christian year when we focus on the church and its mission in the world. The season began fifty days after Easter, with the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Jerusalem church. The season continues until Advent, four Sundays before Christmas, making it the longest and most diverse season of Christianity's festal cycle.
It is appropriate, therefore, that we take a few weeks at the close of the Pentecost season to consider the mission of the church. A few days ago, Church Council had a special meeting to identify and articulate the categories of concern which have led to our recent turmoil. The most frequently identified category had to do with the mission and vision of our church. Are we all moving in the same direction? Or are we working at cross-purposes to one another? Do we have an overarching goal that we all share in common? Or does our diversity undermine our ability to work together as the whole people of God?
We will begin to answer these questions, and many others, at the congregational forum scheduled for two weeks from today. It will take place immediately after worship, and everyone is encouraged to participate. This will not be another meeting with a series of two-minute speeches. This will be a meeting with small-group sessions designed to facilitate in-depth conversations about the challenges and opportunities confronting our church. If we hope to resolve the issues of the past several years, this conversation will be absolutely critical. I, for one, appreciate the commitment of Church Council to take this step and to follow it through in the months ahead.
The purpose of my sermon series on the mission of the church is to identify some biblical parameters within which our conversation will hopefully take place. Unlike secular organizations, the church is not free to decide whatever it wants to about the question of its overarching goal. Our founding documents, the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, are not so open to interpretation that churches can do whatever they please. As a case in point, a church which identified racial or ethnic supremacy as its overarching goal would be no church at all. Our founding documents make it clear that what counts is not the outward appearances but the inward realities of life. (Matthew 23:25-28). We are saved by grace through faith, not by the color of our skin nor by any other circumstance or accomplishment.
Unfortunately, it's often easier to agree on what the church should not be doing than on what it should be doing. I suspect that many of us read the story in Wednesday's Dispatch regarding the disappearance of our new banner. This has been a tragic loss for us all, and we pray it may yet be found.
On the front page of the same section that contained the story about our missing banner, there appeared another story, replete with a full-color photograph, about a Dallas-based evangelistic group called The Strike Force. They were in Grove City, conducting a four-night crusade at one of the churches visited by our Ad Hoc Worship Committee. The Strike Force roared into the sanctuary on motorcycles and proceeded to demonstrate various feats of physical strength such as smashing a concrete block over someone's head while he was sandwiched between beds of nails.
Their overarching goal was to prove that Jesus Christ was not a wimp, but a strong and powerful guy. "God has always manifested himself through strength and power," said the Rev. Keith Craft. "We use the talents God has given us. That's what Samson did. He was endowed with power. We are destroying the enemies (which are) drugs, alcohol, suicide, and sexual promiscuity." (The Columbus Dispatch, Metro Section B, October 30, 1996).
Do you agree or disagree with this overarching goal for the church of Jesus Christ? We may agree with the values of sobriety, celibacy, and the sanctity of life but we may disagree with the theology and/or the method of presentation. Things can get pretty complicated, with people holding many strong and conflicting opinions. To keep the peace, it is tempting to not discuss the question of our overarching goal at all. But we must resist going down that easy road, even though there are many who take it, since it leads to destruction. (Matthew 7:13).
Our failure to communicate effectively about the overarching goal of this church has contributed to the stresses and strains of the past several years. The article about The Strike Force is a case in point. In the absence of effective communication, the article may strike fear in the hearts of First Church members. Is this what's coming with our contemporary worship service? The church in Grove City was, after all, one of the churches visited by our Ad Hoc Worship Committee. Are we trying to emulate that church? Have they become the definition of success? Are we going to start having revivals with body builders on motorcycles roaring into our sanctuary? Such speculation would understandably send most of our church members into a dither.
Without building consensus about our overarching goal, we will always be filled more with fear than with faith about the direction we are moving. We will be prone to misunderstand one another and to be suspicious of each other's intentions. We will find it hard to work together and to accomplish what God has in mind for this church.
Today is my third anniversary in this pulpit. By now my disagreements with the theology of The Strike Force should be obvious. The problem is more of a biblical than a personal one. The fact is that Jesus was a wimp, rather than a muscle man for God. He was the manifestation of God's compassion and love! Jesus had courage and power, but not like the macho 300-pound exhibitionists who conducted the revival in Grove City. Jesus was more of a turn-the-other-cheek kind of guy. His approach to sin and death was to take them in, rather than to take them on.
Jesus manifested what Robert Farrar Capon calls the "indirect, paradoxical, left-handed" power of God. In the beginning Jesus started out as a fairly standard-issue messiah. He exorcized demons, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, healed lepers, restored hearing to the deaf, raised the dead, and proclaimed good news to the poor. In other words, he was kind of a "right-handed," wonder-working rabbi not unlike The Strike Force. People flocked to him enthusiastically. They had more than a thousand people a night attend the event in Grove City. People can never get enough of a good show, whether it's today or 2,000 years ago.
But over time Jesus came to a new understanding of his mission and ministry, wrapped up in his own death and resurrection. He worked fewer and fewer "miracles" and indulged in far less purely "ethical" discourse. Instead, he was increasingly content to suffer the indignities of life. He rejected the efforts of the crowd to make him king. He accepted the wrath of the establishment for identifying with social outcasts: women, children, Samaritans, prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. He developed an awareness of himself as a Messiah who does his work not at the top of the heap, as everyone expects, but in the very depths of the human condition. (cf. The Parables of Grace, Eerdmans • Grand Rapids, MI, 1988).
Ironically, this wimpy, crucified Messiah ended up being the best news the world as ever heard. Rather than being strong-armed into the reign of God as a new race of super disciples, we were brought in by the love of God with all our shortcomings and sins. We were accepted just the way we are, right where we are, with no strings attached. It was a scandalous act of grace, the likes of which this world has never been willing to accept. It was God extending a warm embrace to those who are far off -- the last, the least, the lost, the lonely, and the little.
While the Israelites were captives in Babylon, God extended that embrace through the prophet Isaiah. "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you," says the Lord. "I have called you by name, you are mine. You will be my witnesses to all the nations, that besides me there is no savior." (Isaiah 43:1, 5-12).While the disciples tarried in Jerusalem, God extended that embrace through the resurrected Jesus. "Wait for the promise of the Father," he told his followers. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8).
So we come to the first biblical parameter for the overarching goal of the church: we are in business to share the message of God's grace with an ever-widening circle of people. Contrary to what The Strike Force might say, this is not about packing the house with fantastic feats of strength. This is about growing as a community of love in ministry to all the world. Jerusalem. Judea. Samaria. The ends of the earth. These represent the concentric circles of Christian concern.
Bill Easum, in The Church Growth Handbook, (Abingdon • Nashville, 1990), argues that healthy churches operate within all four circles at once. Jerusalem represents the local congregation, where members reach out to care for one another. Judea represents the geographic area around a local congregation, where members reach out to care for others. Samaria represents the specific charge to reach out and care for the unloved and unwanted people of our society. The ends of the earth represents our charge to reach out and care for all the world.
Notice the two movements in these descriptions: reaching out and caring for. The mission of the church is to reach out to ever-widening circles of people and to care for them in the name of Christ. You can't have one without the other. If we truly care, how can we not reach out? If we truly reach out, how can we not care? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth represent ever-widening circles of Christian concern. They represent an active and sacrificial giving of ourselves.
This understanding of the church's overarching goal hinges upon our understanding of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. If we focus on the early wonder-working Jesus, then we may be content with other sensational demonstrations of power. But if we focus on the incarnate God who came to give his life as a ransom for many, then we will never be content with anything less than the full-bodied experience of Christian community. We will seek to extend ourselves for others in obedience to the way of Christ.
Years ago I remember seeing the news reports of a coal mining accident in the Allegheny Mountains. Many miners escaped with their lives, but three men were still trapped somewhere deep within the earth's crust. Whether they were dead or alive, no one knew. What made the accident even more threatening to life was the presence of intense heat and noxious gases within the mine itself. If the men were not crushed by the rock, they well could have been asphyxiated by the fumes or killed by the heat.
Two days went by before a search expedition was allowed to even enter the mine because of the heat and fumes. Even then, there was great danger in store for anyone who would dare descend into what could well be a deep, black, grave. I don't remember what happened to those three men. All I remember is a brief interview conducted with one of the members of the search party as he was preparing to enter the mine. A reporter asked him if he knew of the noxious gases and the extreme danger of the mine. The man said, "Yes." "And you are still going down?" And the man said, "Those men may still be alive." Without another word of explanation, he put on his gas mask, climbed into the elevator, and descended into the black inferno of the mine.
He put his life on the line, that others might live. That is what Christ did for us, and that is what we can do for others in His name. The challenge of living up to this call was no easier 2,000 years ago than it is today. It is easier to isolate ourselves, our families, and our churches than to extend ourselves, our families, and our churches for others. It is easier to make excuses than to practice hospitality. But the broken bread and the poured wine remind us of who we are in Christ: we are the forgiven people of God, sharing forgiveness in every circle of life.
Let us commit ourselves to the hard work of being gospel people and building a gospel community, constantly reaching out and caring for others even to the ends of the earth. Amen.
Responding to People's Needs
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
November 10, 1996
Memory Verse: "And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" Revelation 21:5a
Today's Texts: Isaiah 58:6-12 and Luke 9:1-6, 10-17
Opening Prayer: May the message of my whole being and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
In this short, three-part, sermon series we are looking at biblical parameters for the mission of the church. What does the bible say about our reason for being in the world? This project may not answer all our questions about the mission and vision of this church, but it does set the stage for a faithful conversation. I hope you will participate in that conversation, hosted and conducted by Church Council, which is scheduled to take place next Sunday after worship. Lunch and child care will be provided.
Last week we focused on the expansive, missionary ambitions of the Christian church. It is hard to read the New Testament any other way. Right from the beginning, Christians were on the move -- reaching out to an ever-widening circle of people with the good news about the saving grace of God. There were those who tried to draw the circle more narrowly, with restrictions of one sort or another, but they eventually lost out. The great feast of heaven was opened up to all comers, with total disregard for the normal distinctions of human existence. Not even outcasts and sinners were disqualified from the warm embrace of this profoundly compassionate God.
If spreading the news about the saving grace of God was the only biblical parameter for the mission of the church, we might have become a publishing house, a political party, or an entertainment company. Our singular goal might have been to reach as many people as possible with the platform of God's indiscriminate grace. Pack the house, by whatever means, to hear the good news of Jesus and God's love. Develop a marketing strategy for every category of potential believers. Keep records of every telephone call and visit. Advertize the church and computerize the follow-up system. Do whatever it takes to bring people in and to get them on board.
The problem, as most of us know on some deep, intuitive level, is that numbers do not a church make. There's a world of difference between growing up and growing fat. We can have all the people in the world, and still not be the church of Jesus Christ. We can fill these pews, and still not be faithful to the promise of the gospel. The message of salvation by grace through faith is not just another slogan to be marketed in a New Age bookstore; it is a special way of relating to the world which responds to people's needs without discrimination or despair. This is the second biblical parameter, which explains and gives character the first.
Take the familiar parables of the Good Samaritan or the Sheep and the Goats. These parables are the staples of Christian education, from pre-school on up. A man was mugged and left in a gutter to die. Two people failed to stop and care for him, even though they should have known better. They walked around, on the other side of the road. But one person, a foreigner, took pity on the man, transported him to an inn, and agreed to pay for his room, board, and medical expenses.
"Which of these three do you think acted like a neighbor?" Jesus asked the teachers of the law. "The one who had mercy on the man," came their reply. "Then go and do likewise," was Jesus' command. "This is the sum of the Law and the Prophets, to 'love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and to 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:25-37) We can build the largest church in the world, but if we have not love we are nothing. (1 Corinthians 13).
When the Incarnate God comes in glory, Jesus says he will gather the nations before him and will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep were rewarded for their heartfelt caring and genuine concern. They had fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the imprisoned. They had responded to people at the point of their need, bringing them close to God.
The goats, on the other hand, had turned away. They had seen the same problems, but like the two people who walked by on the other side of the road, it was not in their hearts to care. Perhaps they were either too busy or too worried, too distracted or too fearful, too judgmental or too successful. Whatever it was, they had not responded to people at the point of their need, driving them away from God.
We know these stories. We like these stories! They speak to us about the essence of what it means to be the church, especially a church like ours steeped in the tradition of the social gospel. The reason for going out and reaching an ever-widening circle of people is to respond to their needs. If we fail to do that, we will not have acted like the church at all. We will have turned our back on a most significant part of our reason for being.
When the Israelites came into the promised land, God charged them to care for the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner. "Neglect these," came the word of God, "and you risk losing everything I have promised. Every 50 years you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land. There shall be loud shouts of joy and blasts of trumpets. Debts are to be forgiven, properties are to be returned, and slaves are to be released. Business as usual is to be interrupted. You are to set things right with one another. You are not to cheat or oppress one another. This shall be a Jubilee for you, instituted by my Spirit," says the Lord. (Leviticus 25:8-55).
With such a strong emphasis on meeting people's needs, we should hardly be surprised that one prophet after another railed against the failure of the religious establishment and the political leaders to care for people. Self-centeredness was not exactly what God had in mind for the community of Israel. When Isaiah saw the self-centered religious establishment of his day, he became filled with indignation. "Do you think God will listen to your prayers and take notice of your fasts, when you fail to care for others at the point of their need? Loose the bonds of injustice and let the oppressed go free. Share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house. Cover the naked and take care of your own kin. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. Then you shall cry out for help, and God will say, 'Here I am.'" (Isaiah 58).
Jesus was cut from this same cloth. He too challenged the religious, political, and economic leaders of his day to be more concerned about other people's needs than about their own comfort or success. It's a question of priorities. Those who would follow Jesus are to be known as the most caring and loving people in the world. A hard-hearted Christian is a contradiction in terms, since the only fitting response to grace is grace.
When Jesus sent his disciples out into the world, he took very little concern for them and very great concern for others. "Take nothing for your journey, other than the clothes on your back. Proclaim the reign of God and heal people of their diseases." It was no small task, and it caused no small stir. Upon their return, the disciples went with Jesus to a city called Bethsaida. There Jesus himself taught and healed the crowds. At the close of the day, the disciples wanted to send people away and retire for the evening. But Jesus would not hear of it.
"You give them something to eat -- don't send them away. You respond to their need." The disciples protested, but Jesus silenced them. "Make them sit down in groups of fifty." Then, blessing what little food they had, Jesus gave it to the disciples to set before the crowd. Everyone ate and was filled, with twelve baskets of broken pieces left over. (Luke 9:1-17).
Jesus never removed the responsibility for meeting people's needs from the shoulders of his disciples. He challenged and empowered them to meet that responsibility, as servants of a living God. This is the way of Christ.
Unfortunately, churches today have too often become more concerned with institutional priorities than with meeting the needs of people. This is particularly true when people bring their needs right here, to the church building and the worship service itself. We find it easier to respond when we travel to Faith Mission, or to Milo-Grogan, or to Appalachia. This enables us to meet people's needs without much impact upon our own lives. It enables us to live with the illusion of distance between the people with needs and our life together as a church.
People with needs are "out there;" here we are educated, rational, capable people with similar tastes and interests. We are the helpers, they are the "helpees." We are the haves, they are the have-nots. We are the heirs of the covenant, they are the outsiders in need of grace.
But what happens when people bring their needs right here? What happens when someone shows up on Sunday morning and says, "I need help. My family's falling apart, and I need someone to care for me. My child has died, and I need someone to help me understand this. My aging parents are coming to live with me, and I need someone to talk with. My doctor just diagnosed a problem, and I need someone to reassure me. My position was just eliminated at the office, and I need someone to work with. My teenager was just arrested for drunk driving, and I don't know what to do."
There was a time when people would keep such needs to themselves, or their closest friends, without bringing them to church. Church was a place to get dressed up, not only physically but emotionally, to put your best foot forward. But increasingly people are coming to church with different expectations. They are looking for a community of people who can relate to their problems and their pain. Churches which are too busy, too afraid, too judgmental, or too set in their ways to respond to people's needs are passed over in favor of those who've become responsive and caring communities of faith.
William Easum in The Church Growth Handbook describes the difference between a first-time visitor and a lifetime church member. First-time visitors ask, what can the church do for me? Lifetime church members ask, what can I do for the church? If the parking is inadequate or the nursery is hard to find, if people are cold or the service is cramped, first-time visitors will probably not come back. First-time visitors are looking for people and places that make them feel welcome and that respond to their needs.
Lifetime church members may take a dim view of such visitors. "If they're not more committed than that, let them stay home!" Easum points out there's a world of difference between the value systems of someone who's been raised for a lifetime in the church and someone who's walked in the door for the very first time. Lifetime members tend to have an aversion to debt; first-time visitors tend to think of credit as a sign of affluence. Lifetime members tend to trust the institution; first-time visitors don't. Lifetime members tend to serve God out of duty, loyalty, and commitment; first-time visitors tend to serve out of compassion. Lifetime members tend to have long-term plans and goals; first-time visitors tend to seek immediate gratification.
Easum goes on with the list, but you get the point. People come to church with different expectations and needs. The second biblical parameter suggests that we meet those needs.
This was the rationale which undergirded our decision to develop the Stephen Ministry program, some four or five years ago. It was the same rationale which led to our current small group ministries, the CATALYST program, and even our plans for additional weekly worship services. In every case, we were thinking more about the needs of people than about the needs of this church as an institution. It wasn't a matter of having more meetings. It was a matter of having more ministry, more human interaction, in the name of Christ.
All these decisions recognized that in this diverse community of faith, different people have different spiritual needs. No single program can be expected to meet all those needs. A variety of programs and services stand a better chance. Rather than being fearful and judgmental about those differences, we have decided to respond with openness and enthusiasm.
We have been charged to care and respond to the needs of people. This is as true on Sunday morning as it is all week long. By opening ourselves up to these needs, we risk being changed. But the promise of the gospel can be fulfilled in no other way. Only by reaching out to an ever-widening circle of people, at the point of their need, can we satisfy and know the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
Renewed by the Love of Christ
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
November 17, 1996
Memory Verse: "And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" Revelation 21:5a
Today's Texts: Genesis 32:22-31 and Luke 5:17-26
Opening Prayer: O God, the Source and Salvation of Life, help us to see your presence and to be your people. Speak to us of grace and fill us with faith. In Christ's name. Amen.
What does it mean to be the church? And have we acted like the church through our recent struggles? These are two important questions which I want to address during this concluding sermon in my series on The Mission of the Church. This morning we come to the heart of the matter. What distinguishes the church from the world?
The answer to that question cannot be gleaned from either of the first two biblical parameters regarding the mission of the church. To reach an ever-widening circle of people and to respond to their needs are two mandates which could work as well for General Motors and the United Way as for the church of Jesus Christ. Many corporations and secular not-for-profit organizations have, in fact, developed mission statements which build upon the themes of growth and sensitivity.
So what distinguishes the church from the world? It is our propensity to respond to the needs of people with the transforming love of Jesus Christ.
That language is so familiar we may not recognize how strongly it challenges the propensities of the world. To respond to the needs of an ever-widening circle of people with the love of Jesus Christ, rather than with a more empirically verifiable strategy, is to assert that our God is both real and the best hope we have. It is to trust in something invisible, ineffable, and irrepressible. It is to be converted to a new way of seeing and being in the world.
Such conversions happen all the time. When were you converted, for example, to believe that the sun does not go around the earth? Anyone can walk outside and see that the sun comes up on one side in the morning and goes down on the other side in the evening. But somewhere along the way, you were converted to a new way of seeing and being. You were persuaded to ignore your senses and to believe that the earth is spinning on its axis, traveling around the sun.
This is not unlike what happens when someone is baptized and confirmed into the church of Jesus Christ. We are converted to a whole new way of seeing and being. Contrary to what our senses tell us, Christians view God as the center of the universe around which everything else revolves. In the church, we rely upon this Holy Center to see us through the changing tides of life.
This morning's story about the healing of a paralytic reveals the true nature and power of this Holy Center. Some people came to Jesus with the hope of healing their friend. They took great trouble to get around the crowds. It wasn't rational. It wasn't obvious. It certainly wasn't guaranteed. But when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
By coming to Jesus with their needs, these people were seeing and being like the church. It was their trust in God which prompted Jesus to say, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
Those words must have caught them by surprise. They had come to Jesus for healing, not forgiveness. They had probably tried the doctors, but to no avail. They may have even tried the healing pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, but someone always managed to get in the water first (John 5). They had lost all hope, until they heard about Jesus, the wonder-working rabbi from Nazareth.
And so they came, filled with faith, expecting a miraculous demonstration of God's strong, right-handed power. What they got, instead, was a plain statement of God's eternal love: "Friend, your sins are forgiven." No magic potions. No dramatic incantations. No fireworks. Just the healing balm of forgiveness, which Jesus applied to the problems of the world, over and over again.
After Jesus spoke those left-handed words of grace, he told the man to stand up, take his mat, and go home. And the man left giving glory to God. What do you make of that? Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. For the paralytic the offer of God's forgiveness became a real and effective agent of change. It was a moment of conversion, which filled people with awe over the power of God's love to transform and to heal.
Those who would follow in the footsteps of Jesus must embody this Spirit of love. We must approach one another, and others, as the forgiven people of God. This cuts through the excuses of why we can or cannot care. This levels the playing field. This establishes the framework for our ministry. We are called to be the covenant community of God's redeeming love. We are called to embody the surprising reconciliation of Christ.
Frederick Buechner tells the story of being confronted by one such wistful, intrusive moment of transcendence. "A year or so ago," he writes, "a friend of mine died.... One morning in his sixty-eighth year he simply didn't wake up. It was about as easy a way as he could possibly have done it, but it was not easy for the people he left behind because it gave us no chance to start getting used to the idea...or to say goodbye...."
"He died in March, and in May my wife and I were staying with his widow overnight when I had a short dream about him. I dreamed he was standing there in the dark guest room where we were asleep looking very much like himself in the navy blue jersey and white slacks he often wore. I told him how much we missed him and how glad I was to see him again. He acknowledged that somehow."
"Then I said, 'Are you really there, Dudley?' I meant was he there in fact, in truth, or was I merely dreaming he was. His answer was that he was really there. 'Can you prove it?' I asked him. 'Of course,' he said. Then he plucked a strand of wool out of his jersey and tossed it to me. I caught it between my thumb and forefinger, and the feel of it was so palpably real that it woke me up. That's all there was to it...."
"I told the dream at breakfast the next morning, and I'd hardly finished when my wife spoke. She said that she'd seen the strand on the carpet as she was getting dressed. She was sure it hadn't been there the night before. I rushed upstairs to see for myself, and there it was -- a little tangle of navy blue wool." (The Clown in the Belfry, New York • Harper Collins, 1992).
What do you make of that? Was it a coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. For Buechner the dream was a sign that the dead are given back their lives and that the doctrine of the resurrection is not just a doctrine. It was a moment of conversion, as Buechner came to find new meaning and power in the things he had talked about all his life.
The story of Jacob wrestling with God provides a similar twist. Jacob had been dreading his imminent encounter with his brother, whom he had wronged early in life. But on the eve of their fateful reunion, Jacob was alone in the wilderness. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man came up and wrestled with him until daybreak. When Jacob demanded a blessing, before letting the man go, he was given a new name, Israel, "because you have struggled with God and with humans, and have prevailed." (Genesis 32:28).
What do you make of that? Was it a coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. For Jacob the wrestling match with a stranger was a sign that God did not intend to end his life at the hands of his brother. The sins of the past would be washed away in a sea of forgiveness. It was a moment of conversion, as Jacob came to find new comfort and blessing in the promises of God.
This is the criteria we must use to reflect upon the struggles our church has been through. This is the mission we must claim if we hope to move forward in faith. We must rely upon the transcendent power of forgiveness if we hope to meet the needs of an ever-widening circle of people with the transforming love of God. This is what makes the church different from the world. We refuse to let anything separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We refuse to be distracted from grace.
Every time we seek to listen and understand, every time we seek to pray and heal, every time we seek to forgive and forego, we incarnate the Spirit of Christ. There is no other mission and no other program. Our demanding and fearful selves will grasp at every earthly strategy for self-protection. But in Christ we have been converted to a new way of seeing and being. We have been set free to love. This is my prayer and my hope for us all. Amen.