A Church That Works At Being A Caring Family
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
September 21, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: 2 Samuel 9:1-13, Psalm 106:1-8, 45-48, Acts 4:32-37
Prayer: God, we are gathered here as your people, eager to hear your word. Speak to us now and make us into your church. Teach us and empower us to love each other as you have loved us. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.
This morning we start the first of eight Adventure sermons, following the themes of The 50 Day Spiritual Adventure. For those of you who are doing the daily devotional, and it's not too late to start, you may have figured out by now that we are doing this a little differently than the designer's of the curriculum had in mind. They imagined that each Sunday would introduce the coming week's material, both in the Christian education classes and in worship. We have decided to use each Sunday to summarize the previous week's material. Hopefully it won't be too confusing to follow along.
For the last two weeks you have heard me talk about the Adventure material from this pulpit. Having now completed the first week, I would urge you again to consider using the daily devotional. I don't know what future weeks will hold, but if the past week is any indication -- we're in for a real treat. The daily scripture readings were some of my all time favorites, the questions were helpful, and the accompanying guidebook by Dan Lupton, I Like Church, But..., lifted up six challenging characteristics of caring churches and families.
These characteristics were challenging not because they presented so many new ideas as to how people might care for one another; they were challenging because they made you stop and think about whether this church -- at the corner of Ninth and Broad -- would be considered a caring family by the average person in the pew. It's not the idea that's hard to come up with; it's putting the idea into practice.
Perhaps some of you saw the column in Friday's paper by Cal Thomas. Now I don't often find myself agreeing with much this man has to say, and he didn't persuade me this time that practicing the social gospel has an inverse relationship to practicing Christian love. Systemic change and genuine caring are not incompatible activities.
But Cal Thomas is right when he says that the ability of a group to make an effective social witness is undermined if they cannot figure out how to love one another. He quotes researcher George Barna, who has made a career out surveying the state of religion in America, as saying that when non-Christians think about the church, two thoughts come to mind: first, that Christians attend a lot of meetings, and second, that Christians oppose many things. (The Columbus Dispatch, September 19, 1997).
If that's we're up against, then it's no wonder that our churches have been dying. Who needs more meetings? Who needs more conflicts? The average person on the street would just assume leave both of those things alone.
What a contrast between this first impression and that which non-Christians had of the church some 2,000 years ago, when our movement was first getting started. Early Christian writers often wrote about love, rather than meetings and conflicts, as the identifying mark which the gospel of Jesus Christ had called forth. Intentional acts of kindness became the soul and substance of what it meant to be a Christian.
Consider the description of the church by the African theologian Tertullian, who was converted to Christianity in the year 193 after he witnessed the courage of Christians facing torture and death for their new-found faith in the crucified yet resurrected Son of God. Once Tertullian joined the church, he discovered the source of their courage in the dynamic of their community.
"Though we have a kind of money-chest," he writes in his Apology just a few years after his conversion, "it is not for the collection of official fees, as if ours were a religion of fixed prices. Each of us puts in a small donation on the appointed day in each month, or when they choose to do so, and only if they choose to do so, and only if they can; for no one is compelled and the offering is voluntary."
"This is as it were the deposit fund of kindness. For we do not pay out money from this fund to spend on feasts or drinking parties or inelegant 'blow-outs', but to pay for the nourishment and burial of the poor, to support boys and girls who are orphan and destitute; and old people who are confined to the house; and those who have been shipwrecked; and any who are in the mines, or banished to islands, or in prison, are pensioners because of their confession, provided they are suffering because they belong to the followers of God."
"But it is principally the practice and application of such affection as this that puts a brand of disgrace upon us with certain people. 'See', they say, 'how they love one another'; for they themselves hate one another. 'See how ready they are to die for each other'; for they will more readily kill each other. They find fault with us too because we call each other 'brother' (and 'sister'). And the reason for their calumny is just this, I feel sure; that among them every name of relationship is assumed in mere affectation (as a cloak for wickedness)." (Apologeticus, 39, in Henry Bettenson, The Early Christian Fathers, Oxford University Press • London, 1956, 1976).
If the truth came anywhere close to this description, it's no wonder the early church grew by leaps and bounds and eventually took over the ancient world. "See how they love one another" is a pretty compelling testimony -- especially in this day and age when we are confronting such rabid individualism. Being a caring family is, indeed, exactly what the church is supposed to be about. Not committee meetings. Not opposing things. But loving one another in active and concrete ways. Remembering our promises. Taking the time to listen to each other and to respond with compassion and concern. Cal Thomas is right when he says that if we are not doing that, we have lost something rather crucial.
It is no accident that becoming a caring family turned out to be the first Adventure theme in our study of what the church ought to be. The challenge of the gospel is to extend basic human kindness beyond our immediate circle of family and friends. Jesus himself observed that if we love only those who love us, if we greet only those who are like us, then we are no different than anyone else. (Matthew 5:46f). That is the natural way of things. But if we extend ourselves to care for anyone and everyone -- the person sitting next to us in the pew, even though we may hardly know each other, let alone our enemies and those who persecute us, we are expressing a Spirit which comes very close to the love of God itself.
Churches often lift up this ideal, but then fail to put it into practice. It takes intentionality and effort. It takes work to care for the stranger, the repugnant, and the enemy, as well as our family and friends. And many times churches have not learned how to do this work. When someone has troubles who everyone knows and likes, there is a tremendous outpouring of sympathy and assistance. But when someone has troubles who everyone doesn't know or like, there is a minimal expression of sympathy and assistance. Sometimes there is no response at all. More than once we have lost a member due to a simple lack of caring.
This dynamic is, of course, a two way street. I'm sure that most of us do not make decisions about whom we will or will not care for. It just kind of happens, especially when the person has been a rather quiet pew sitter without much involvement or engagement. We may not even know that a caring response is required. This can be especially true in a downtown church, where people come from so far away. But Jesus challenged his followers to share their needs and resources in order to exemplify the Spirit of love. We are to care for our neighbor even as we care for ourselves.
Perhaps one reason Jesus called his followers to such a difficult task is that Jesus wants the church to be something more than a just another social club. Anyone can exercise caring for friends of like mind and interest. Even the world knows how to do that! But to go beyond that circle of friends to care for people who are different from ourselves, people we hardly know, or people who just plain turn us off -- that is to live out a vision of heaven on earth that the world knows nothing about and even considers foolish.
Clearly, when such a vision takes hold it represents an active commitment rather than a casual coincidence. Care giving of this sort does not happen by accident. It happens because people recognize its importance and go out of their way to make sure that no one is neglected or overlooked. That is the motivation of the Stephen Ministry program, an intentional program of Christian care giving, as well as the simple Prayers of the Church column in our newsletter.
I found it remarkable, some time ago, when a pastor from another church called me to find out how we handled the Prayers of the Church in our newsletter. He had wanted to get something started like that at his church, but everyone thought it would be too embarrassing to know each other's business and to have it put down in writing. "How did we do it?" he asked me. "And how did we get people to accept it?" When he heard that we were also printing the birthdays of people, he could hardly imagine anything more wonderful. "You're far ahead us," he concluded, "when it comes to the things that make for Christian care giving."
Whether we are ahead, of course, is not the point. But I did find it interesting to learn that one of our teenagers opens our newsletter to that little column each and every week. And, yes, he calls it "the gossip column." I would prefer, however, to call it "the gospel column," because it gives us the opportunity to go beyond the familiar in our expressions of caring and sharing.
What do you do with that information? Do you even bother to read it? And after you read it, do you even bother to lift those people up in prayer? Do you bother to send them cards of greeting or concern? Do you bother to offer them your services? Do you bother to care for your sisters and brothers in Christ? It is a bother that can become a blessing both for them and for you.
That, in the end, is the bottom line for every Christian. Do we bother to care for people? Do we bother to take the time and make the effort to move our relationships beyond the superficial to the real? M. Scott Peck calls such bothering the essence of love. The early church, according to the book of Acts, was able to match unmet human needs with available congregational resources. The result? "There was not a needy person among them." It took effort and faith to accomplish such a thing, to make sure that no one was falling through cracks, that no one had been forgotten. But, in the end, that effort made all the difference in the world.
For King David the effort was a matter of remembering. "Is there no one left from the house of Saul?" He had once been best friends with Jonathan, Saul's son, whose love, scripture tells us, was so "wonderful as to surpass the love of women." (2 Samuel 1:26). But that friendship was not able to survive David's quest for the throne. Years later, after David had subdued all his adversaries, he remembered to show kindness to the house of Saul.
He didn't have to do that. There was only one left. A lame beggar named Mephibosheth who could just as well have been forgotten. But David remembered. And David provided for him out of his estate. That's how caring works. It takes paying attention. It takes sharing our resources and ourselves. It takes time. But when we make the effort, that caring can transform us all.
In Marjorie Williams' classic tale, The Velveteen Rabbit, we listen in on a conversation between the Skin Horse and the Rabbit which reveals both the power and the risk of caring.
"The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-an-by break their main springs and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it."
"'What is REAL?' asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. 'Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?'"
"'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.' 'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit. 'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'"
"'Does it happen all at once, like being wound,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?' 'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'" (Doubleday & Co., Inc. • New York, 1971).
May we too become Real as we work at becoming the caring family of God. Amen.
A Church that Captures the Heart of the Community
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
September 28, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: 2 Kings 5:1-15, Psalm 65:1-8, Acts 5:12-16
Prayer: Giving God, you have given yourself to us that we might give ourselves to others. But we are frightened, tired, and confused. Renew us now the sweet wind of your Spirit. Speak to us of the things that make for peace. Amen.
Rumor has it that Thomas Aquinas was once speaking with Pope Innocent II while the pope was counting a large sum of money from the Vatican treasury. The pope turned to Aquinas and noted that the church no longer needed to say, "silver and gold have I none." "True, Holy Father," Aquinas observed, "But neither can the church any longer say, 'Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.'"
That story, apocryphal or not, has been troubling me all week long as I've been pondering the Adventure question of how we could become a church that captures the heart of the community. Our daily devotional guide has lifted up several scriptures with an emphasis on healing:
The motif of both the gospels and the book of Acts, as picked up by The 50 Day Spiritual Adventure, is simply this: in response to a series of signs and wonders, often involving miraculous healings, the reputation of Jesus and the early church grew by leaps and bounds. Everybody wanted to get in on the action. They could hardly keep up with the demand. Rooms were filled to overflowing and thousands were converted at a time.
If we take this motif at face value, it's easy to understand why people would come flocking to the doors of the church. Who wouldn't want to get close to that kind of power and presence? Even if one didn't have an immediate need, there's no telling what tomorrow may bring. And it must have been exciting to see people utterly transformed before your very eyes. The church captured the heart of its community by offering what people were looking for: direct access to the purgative powers of God.
Last month, in one of our newsletters, Carlton Weber wrote about what the sanctuary rededication meant to him. Although it clearly meant a lot to him, he cautioned against our putting too many expectations on a renovated sanctuary. The building does not a church make. I doubt there's a single person in all of Columbus who's been sitting around waiting for us to fix up our sanctuary before they would join our church. Can't you just see someone sitting in a comfortable recliner, replete with a 48 ounce Big Gulp and a television remote, saying to the family, "You know, if they would just fix the lights and paint that place, I'd start going to church." I don't think so. At least that's not what I've heard from any of the sixteen new members who joined our church today.
It takes more than a renovated sanctuary to get people interested in church; it takes some connection to the spiritual realm itself. The problem, as Aquinas aptly pointed out, is that as the church has gotten more comfortable in the world it has gotten less comfortable in the Spirit. My guess is that any talk of spiritual healing makes a large number of us rather squeamish. That's just not our style. We believe in doctors and hospitals and insurance plans. We believe in modern medicine and science. We believe in God as a presence that may provide some emotional comfort, but that's about all.
Unfortunately, emotional comfort comes in many sizes and shapes these days. It's not enough to get people excited about going to church, let alone to bring anyone else along with them. Which brings me to my uncomfortable conclusion after a week of studying this theme with The 50 Spiritual Adventure: if we want to capture the heart of our community, then we cannot totally abandon the ministry of healing to secular professionals. The church, if it is to be the church, needs to claim the ability of God to heal in its prayers and in its programs. That was how it all began, and there continues to be both a place and a need for that today.
I am not, of course, condoning the activities of charlatans who have chosen to exploit this power for their own personal advantage and to turn it into a commercial racket. We are not going to start having healing services with hidden microphones and cameras in order to stage the semblance of a power that belongs to God and God alone.
But I am condoning activities that remind us of who we are as a church and our purpose in the world. The interface of the physical and spiritual is not without its benefits. It may not be as predictable as Rod Parsley would have people believe, but there is a discernible influence in the lives of people and churches who take seriously the power of prayer. When we move beyond "thy will be done" to an imperative outpouring of our heartfelt needs and aspirations, there comes a certain energy in the air which is unmistakably divine.
A few weeks ago, many of us were praying for Dale Wade. I had the good fortune of being present with the family as he began to awake from his coma. Talk about a confusingly wonderful moment. The doctor was practically apologizing for having dragged everyone in from out of town. "There's no medical reason why this man's alive," he said. But the family assured him they were not upset.
This is not the first medical miracle I've been a part of since coming to this church, just four years ago. And they are just the tip of the iceberg. People have found homes where they might just as well have been rejected. Deadlines have been met against insurmountable odds. Coincidences have led to new life in ways that boggle the mind. Commitments have been made and kept, even at considerable personal sacrifice. Because of my position as your pastor, I have probably had the opportunity to witness all this more than any other single person.
I wish everyone could see and feel the ministry of this church the way I do. It is dynamic. It is effective. It is relational. It is honest. It is open. It is affirming. And it is very much involved with healing. If we could just get to the point of recognizing the treasure that we share together, rather than minimizing or even ridiculing it, this church would indeed experience a vibrant renewal of our life together.
That is the way it works. No church can capture the heart of its community until it captures the heart of its members. Can you imagine recommending anything to anyone in which you yourself did not believe? If you want to tell your friends about a restaurant, you direct them towards those restaurants you like and away from those restaurants you don't like. It's that simple. Until you find something here that truly excites your spiritual palate, the theme for this week will elude us. There is no way to capture the heart of the community, and no way to grow as a church, if we are trapped by images of impotence and irregularity.
This leads to an equally obvious corollary: if you don't find something that excites your spiritual palate, then make something happen! Throw yourself into whatever you're looking for with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Find your passion and others will find it with you. This is a variation on the theme of what we tell each and every new member class as they join the church: do nothing other than come to worship on Sunday morning and you will soon be doing nothing at all. Your church experience will be less than satisfying if you limit the investment of yourself to worship alone. Find another way to give, however, and this place may become everything you've ever longed for in a church.
In Run with the Horses, Eugene Peterson tells how he saw a family of birds teaching their young to fly. Three young swallows were perched on a dead branch that stretched out over a lake. "One adult swallow got alongside the chicks and started shoving them out toward the end of the branch -- pushing, pushing, pushing. The end one fell off. Somewhere between the branch and the water four feet below, the wings started working, and the fledgling was off on its own. Then the second one."
"The third was not to be bullied. At the last possible moment his grip on the branch loosened just enough so that he swung downward, then tightened again, bulldog tenacious. The parent was without sentiment. She pecked at the desperately clinging talons until it was more painful for the poor chick to hang on than risk the insecurities of flying. The grip was released, and the inexperienced wings began pumping. The mature swallow knew what the chick did not -- that it would fly -- that there was no danger in making it do what it was perfectly designed to do."
"Birds have feet and can walk. Birds have talons and can grasp a branch securely. They can walk; they can cling. But flying is their characteristic action, and not until they fly are they living at their best, gracefully and beautifully."
"Giving is what we do best. It is the air into which we were born. It is the action that was designed into us before our birth.... Some of us try desperately to hold on to ourselves, to live for ourselves. We look so bedraggled and pathetic doing it, hanging on to the dead branch of a bank account for dear life, afraid to risk ourselves on the untried wings of giving. We don't think we can live generously because we have never tried. But the sooner we start, the better, for we are going to have to give up our lives finally, and the longer we wait, the less time we have for the soaring and swooping life of grace."
This is an operable analogy when it comes to helping our church capture the heart of this community. We need to let go of whatever dead branch we're clinging to and become the trusting givers God created us to be. God is like the mother swallow, pushing us off the branch. Yet we resist her overtures with all the tenacity of that scared little bird. What if we give of ourselves and nothing comes back? What if we give of ourselves only to find that we're out there all alone? What if we give of ourselves and it turns out that we're not able to follow through?
On Friday the Adventure journal featured this morning's Old Testament lesson. It was a blessing for me to take the focus off of Elisha and Naaman, the main characters of the story, and to consider the Hebrew servant girl. Against the better part of reason, she gave her testimony about the healing power of God. Never mind that leprosy was an incurable disease. Never mind that her master had no doubt tried every healer in all of Aram. Never mind that if she was wrong she could have been in big trouble. The stories of a God who delivered people from slavery and led them through a hostile wilderness were too compelling to resist. They had captured her heart and she decided to share them with others.
Off Naaman went to Israel, to see for himself what this God could do. It was not unlike what happened to the church, after the coming of the Holy Spirit during the festival of Pentecost. People were so filled with expectation that they tried even to pass within the apostle's shadow. "Now I know," Naaman proclaimed, "that there is a God in Israel!" And more than ever, great numbers of people were coming to the church of Jesus Christ.
Do you see what I see? When the church becomes infected with the spirit of giving. When the church comes to believe in the power of God to teach and to heal. When the church moves beyond worship to serve people at the point of their need. When the church recognizes the treasure it has been given in Jesus Christ. Then all people will be drawn unto God.
How can we talk about this dynamic without mentioning Bethlehem on Broad Street? If our church has any example of capturing the heart of the community it is through our involvement in this annual Christmas day event for the poor. What started out as a small response to an immediate problem has become a citywide effort that engages the time, talent, and treasure of thousands. With nothing more than word of mouth, people beat a path to our door. Reporters. Colleagues. Friends. Volunteers. Recipients. Seldom do I meet someone from Columbus who has not heard of B.O.B. And, yes, people have joined our church because we took the time to care.
This should be a lesson for us all. Our church is a great church that can do greater things still as we give ourselves to each other, in ministry to all the world. Amen.
A Church that Welcomes all People
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
October 5, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: Zechariah 7:8-14, Psalm 67:1-7, and Acts 10:1-16
Prayer: Compassionate God, you have welcomed into your presence with open arms. Carry us on the wings of your word. Speak to us through the stirring of your Spirit. Amen.
As we complete the third week of our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure, I have had a new insight into the direction we are being led by our scripture readings, meditations, and prayers. I should have figured this out earlier, since the Adventure begins with five action steps, but it took me three weeks to see the pattern and to reach the following conclusion: the church is better described by verbs than nouns. The church is something that we do with other people rather than something that we are in ourselves.
Two weeks ago we talked about caring. The church is to care for others. When we do that, especially when we care for others outside our immediate circle, we are approaching the very presence of God with us. Last week we talked about healing. The church is to heal others. When we do that, whether the healing be physical, psychological, or spiritual, we will capture the heart of our community. Word will get around and people will beat a path to our door.
This morning we are going to talk about what to do with those people as they come from week to week and day to day. The operative word is welcoming. The church is to welcome all people. We could hardly have juxtaposed a better theme from the Adventure on Worldwide Communion Sunday. As Christians around the world celebrate their unity in the Spirit, we come face to face with the simple truth that in the body of Christ all people are welcome, just as they are, right where they are.
It sounds so obvious that we may have no disagreement about the basic principle. There may not be a single person in this church who would disagree with the following statement: "Everyone is welcome here." And we do, in fact, do a pretty good job at making our visitors feel welcome. As I work with one new member class after another, the friendliness of this congregation comes up again and again as a reason why people decide to join this church rather than some other one.
I find this testimony to be particularly heartening when it comes from someone who has been excluded or wounded by another church or Christian institution. Nothing is more offensive to God than when the followers of Jesus Christ -- friend of the last, the lost, the least, the lowest, and the lonely -- take up the mantle of rejection and persecution. That mantle was the organizational culture of the religious establishment in Jesus' day, which he came to challenge and to change. When we bring that culture back into the church, we violate one of the basic tenets of our faith: "Everyone is welcome here."
Perhaps some of you have seen the sign in the past week or two in front of a Lutheran church on James Road. The message for the week read as follows: "Clubs can often be exclusive. The church is not to be a club." Getting my daughter ready for her in-car driving test on Thursday, I've had reason to pass that sign on multiple occasions. Every time I went by, I thought about the call I received some months ago from a woman who was asked to leave a Lutheran church in Newark, even though she was engaged in a successful and well-received ministry, because the bishop had learned that she was a lesbian.
"I have three years to find a new denomination and a new church," she told me, "before my credentials in the Lutheran church will expire." She was calling me because she thought First Church and the United Church of Christ might be open and affirming of someone like her.
I was proud to be able to say, "Yes!" to this woman, "you would be welcome here." But her story illustrates the challenge of our open and affirming attitude. It's one thing to be friendly to visitors, who we don't know. That's the easy part. It's a very different thing to be friendly to people who we do know. That's the hard part. Let's face it: The more we find out about people, the harder it is to love them. Anyone who's tried to live with someone else for any period of time knows exactly what I'm talking about. Real people, as opposed to the imaginary kind that we grow up thinking we will fall in love and live happily ever after with, are a challenging lot indeed.
We may not be as hospitable as we imagine. Who are the people who drive you nuts? Who are the people who scare you? Who are the people who make you uncomfortable? Make your list and then ask yourself the question, "Are those people welcome here?" The answer, if we are honest with ourselves, is "not exactly." They are welcome only up to a point, as long as they do things our way, which is kind of an invisible line in the sand beyond which people dare not go.
I remember someone in our church telling me about the confusion, in former days, between the Church of Christ and the United Church of Christ. After all, what's in a word! People would visit this church, thinking they had come to a Church of Christ -- a much more conservative and fundamentalist denomination. It wouldn't take them long to figure out that this church was unlike any Church of Christ they had ever visited before. Finding out that the United Church of Christ was a very different breed of cat, they were told where and how to find a church in which they would be "more comfortable."
That is the normal way of things. Birds of a feather flock together. Too many cooks spoil the broth. The sign in front of that Lutheran church notwithstanding, homogeneity has been one of the guiding lights of the church growth movement. Plant homogenous churches in which people have not only the cross of Christ but also the crucible of culture in common. Those are the churches, we were told, which grow the fastest. Those are the churches which get along the best. And they may, in fact, be right from a pure demographic point of view. But when the church becomes a culture club, regardless of how successful it might be, it risks giving in to the very forces which are tearing our society apart. Consider these stories, gleaned from The Dispatch in just the past five days:
And that's just a sampling from the past week! I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new when I say that people around the world are having trouble with the issues of diversity. The legacy of the enlightenment, with its bold assertion that all people are created equal, has proven to be less than effective at dealing with the basic anxieties, the basic fears, and the basic selfishness of people. We continue to circle up the wagons in an attempt to protect ourselves from the encroachments of the world. We continue to huddle up in our homogenous tribes of family and friends, religions and churches, movements and militias.
Perhaps its time to recognize that "everybody welcome" is a very radical and controversial idea which most people don't even claim to value and even fewer people manage to practice. This was, in fact, what led the liberal Washington Gladden into a very public conflict with the conservative Billy Sunday. But if we take the time to listen, the still small voice of God speaks with unmistakable clarity:
Nothing could be clearer for the church of Jesus Christ. We are not to exclude people from our midst, not even after we get to know them. Perhaps this exposes the wisdom of our Constitution, which provides no way for this church to ever remove a member for cause. As frustrating as that can be at times, and as illogical as it may be for any other membership organization, it may be exactly how God wants us to act as the church of Jesus Church.
We are to be the welcoming people of God. We are to welcome people's ideas, cultures, languages, and traditions. We are to people's individualities, preferences, visions, and sensitivities. We are to welcome people's membership in this church, regardless of who they are and of how that changes us. Anything less, on this Worldwide Communion Sunday, and we are not really being the church at all. Amen.
A Church that Empowers each Individual
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
October 5, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: Zechariah 7:8-14, Psalm 67:1-7, and Acts 10:1-16
Prayer: Empowering God, we look to your Spirit for inspiration, guidance, and strength. Inspire us now. Guide us now. Strengthen us now by the power of your Word. Amen.
This week and next with our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure we delve into two crucial themes when it comes to the church we've always longed for. If churches do not empower their members for ministry and service, and if they do not model integrity, then they will have a hard time being the church at all.
It is ironic that we would dig into the theme of empowerment on the Sunday of our next congregational forum. This is, in fact, what lies at the heart of every congregational church. Contrary to those churches in which the bishop may be king, congregational churches give that authority to the collective voice of their members. If churches with a congregational polity do not empower their members, then there is something seriously wrong indeed.
But we can be empowered in many different ways. We can have the power to control something, which is democratically represented in the power of the ballot box. Or we can have the power to do something, which is protected constitutionally in our Bill of Rights. These two dimensions of empowerment stand in dynamic and creative tension. Too much control is called totalitarianism. Too much freedom is called anarchy.
William Easum, a noted church consultant who will be speaking and leading a workshop this coming Saturday at First Community Church in Marblecliff, argues that churches are different from secular societies in that we have a spiritual head enabling us to act responsibly with minimal supervision. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his followers to wait in Jerusalem until they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, does the Christian story begin in earnest.
Easum believes that the church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has reason to extend a good deal of freedom to its members -- far more than society at large. We have a common spiritual head which transcends all human authority. There is a radical egalitarian dimension which comes through in the book of Acts. All people are not only welcome in the church of Jesus Christ, they are empowered by the Spirit to exercise their gifts in responsible ministry and service.
Finding churches which give their members the freedom to do just that, without making them jump through hoops, has become Easum's obsession. And he's practically given up on finding them among the established mainline churches in which he served as pastor for more than 30 years. These churches, which would include our own, get so wrapped up in governing their affairs that Easum sees them squeezing all the life and joy out of the body of Christ. I quote several paragraphs from the start of his most recent book on the subject:
"Established churches worship at the feet of the sacred cow of CONTROL. Control takes many shapes; our insistence on controlling everything that happens in our congregations and denominations; our desire to coordinate everything that happens, or to know everything before it happens, or to insist on voting on every new issue or ministry; a parlor that few people use; a gym floor that must be kept scratch free; a kitchen that no one can use but designated persons; money that belongs to the Trustees; an official body that has to approve ever decision. Control is stifling the spiritual growth of God's people."
"Established churches must either cease worshiping the god of control, or they perish! The Body of Christ is most effective when individuals are given permission to live out their God-given spiritual gifts on behalf of the Body rather than someone restraining what they can or cannot do. This book is about freeing individuals and teams to make responsible contributions to the Body of Christ without having to first ask for permission."
"The freedom of individuals to act responsibly and make a contribution to the Body of Christ does not happen through representative democracy as most established churches seem to believe. Electing people to vote on behalf of those who elected them encourages responsible action only in a very select few. People can't act responsibly and make a contribution unless they are free to control things that are important to them. People are free to be responsible only when they do not have to go through a labyrinth of committees to get approval. Representative government does little to involve ordinary people in designing the organization, planning its strategy and tactics, or making decisions about things that vitally effect their lives. If people want to start new ministries in which they live our their spiritual gifts, they should be free to do so." (Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers: Ministry Anytime, Anywhere, by Anybody, Abingdon Press • Nashville, TN, 1995)
Those are strong words, about which you can find out more by attending Easum's workshop on Saturday, but I'm persuaded they are words we need to hear. Empowerment is not about control. Empowerment is about ministry and service. Empowerment is about having a dream and using your gifts to build up the Body of Christ.
Consider this morning's New Testament lesson from the fourth chapter of Acts. The controllers were the religious establishment in Jerusalem. The apostles were the empowered outsiders. Common, unschooled, ordinary people, fishermen by trade, who had once shuttered in fear in the wake of Jesus' crucifixion. Now, however, they were encouraged and emboldened to proclaim the mysteries of God.
The controllers reacted in characteristic fashion: they locked the apostles up in jail. "We dare not allow them to heal and teach, since we cannot control what they do and say." They hoped to intimidate the apostles into submission in order to nip this fledgling movement in the bud. But the Spirit won this round, as Peter found the courage to articulate his faith in Jesus Christ. "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone; by no other name can we be saved!" When the controllers saw the man who had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
This was a classic confrontation between the controllers and the Spirit of God. How often have churches committed this exact same crime, with cries of: "We've never done it that way before. We've never preached it that way before." Or the most deadly of all: "We tried that before and it didn't work." But like a dandelion finding its way up through a crack in the sidewalk, the Spirit manages to make herself seen and heard.
On a winter day in 1961, the meteorologist, Edward Lorenz, was using computer modeling to explore the science of weather forecasting. Lorenz would boil weather down to the barest skeleton, then feed those initial conditions into his computer in numerical formulas and watch the resulting patterns of future weather created on his printout in the form of wavy lines. It was a fascinating exercise which promised to contribute much to long-range weather prediction.
Wanting to examine one sequence at greater length, Lorenz decided to take a shortcut by starting midway through the computer run. To give the machine its initial conditions, he simply typed the numbers directly from the earlier printout. Then he walked down the hall to get away from the noise and drink a cup of coffee. An hour later, when he returned, he saw something entirely unexpected -- something that planted the seed for a new science.
This new run should have exactly duplicated the old. Lorenz had copied the numbers into the machine himself. The program had not changed. Yet as he stared at the new printout, Lorenz saw his weather diverging so rapidly from the pattern of the last run that, within just a few [computer] months, all resemblance had disappeared. Suddenly he realized the truth. There had been no malfunction. The problem was in the numbers he had typed. In the computer's memory, six decimal places were stored: .506127. On the printout, to save space, just three appeared: .506.
Lorenz had entered the shorter, rounded-off numbers, assuming that the difference -- one part in a thousand -- was inconsequential. Lorenz's discovery, called "The Butterfly Effect," forever doomed the science of long-range weather prediction. A tiny variation in conditions -- such as a butterfly moving its wings in South America -- can have a vastly multiplied impact that might influence a hurricane off the coast of Florida.
Of course, this notion of "sensitive dependence on initial conditions" was not altogether new: For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; For want of a shoe, the horse was lost; For want of a horse, the rider was lost; For want of a rider, the battle was lost; For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost! But Lorenz's discovery took this notion to a new order of magnitude. In life, as well as in science, small changes can become enormously magnified. Some may ask, "How can our small witness make any real difference to our world today?" But consider the butterfly effect.
How often has even one person -- a Lincoln, a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, Jr. -- made an enormous impact on society! Or consider the winner of this year's Noble Peace Prize, Jody Williams, a little known woman working out of a remote Vermont farmhouse for the worldwide elimination of land mines. Then there is the greatest Life of all. Jesus said to his disciples, "When I go away, the Advocate will come to you and you will do greater works than I do because you will all be filled with the Spirit of God." (John 15:26 and 14:12).
When was the last time that you were filled with the Spirit to do something great for God? It pains me to think of the times when people were discouraged from doing what God would have them do because it didn't fit into the scheme of things. Women weren't supposed to do that. We don't sing that kind of music. You haven't gone through the proper channels. You're too young and inexperienced. Our insurance won't permit that kind of exposure. I'm sure you can come up with your own list of excuses. By the time people go through that once or twice, they are discouraged from ever pursuing their dream again.
But this is antithetical to what the church of Jesus Christ is all about. Two thousand years ago we broke away from a controlling religious establishment in order to welcome all people and to empower them to use their spiritual gifts. The power comes from God. But the freedom comes from us. When we deny people the freedom to exercise their gifts, the power goes underground and can be lost entirely. When we give people the freedom to exercise their gifts, the power explodes in surprising and beautiful ways.
This should be our goal as we make plans for the future: to encourage ourselves and others to find and use our spiritual gifts. Policies and budgets are not the essence of a church. People and creativity are. What a blessing it was on Friday to hear Henrietta Henderson talk to the Guild about how she has developed and used her gift of painting! What a blessing it was to read in the newsletter about all the ways our new members hope to get involved in the life of our church! This needs to be lifted up and encouraged on the part of each and every one of us. Not just our involvement with boards and committees, but the active giving of our lives in ministries that will bring people closer to God.
The shift in focus from the organization to the individual is hard to make. We've been trained for so long to think in terms of controlling the environment, that it can appear irresponsible to think about anything else. But when we begin to think about empowering the constituent parts of the environment, when we begin to think about empowering individuals and small groups, imaginations begin to soar and populations begin to grow. Healthy organizations come from the wholeness of their constituent parts. One person tells another person that this is a place where you are free to be yourself and to serve as God would have you serve.
I see this Spirit growing at First Church. As we gather this afternoon in our congregational forum, let's keep in mind that it's not beyond our grasp to really be the church of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A Church that Models Integrity
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
October 19, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: 1 Samuel 7:2-13, Psalm 23 Adapted, and Acts 5:1-11
Prayer: O God, from whom no secrets are hid, search us and know us with your Transforming Love. Make us clean by the power of your Sustaining Word. Redeem us with your Amazing Grace. Amen.
Several months ago I was faced an ethical dilemma. It was the kind of thing they might put on a question card in the game of Scruples. Our VISA bill arrived in the mail and it was significantly less than I had anticipated. Perusing the bill I saw quickly what had happened. A payment of more than $1,300 from the month before had been posted twice on my statement. By computer or human error, I suddenly found myself $1,300 richer.
What's a Christian to do? Should I call the VISA company and inform them of their mistake, paying the money that was due? Or should I wait and see if they catch their mistake, hoping against hope that they'd never even notice? It seems obvious that a person of integrity, let alone a pastor, would do the former without so much as batting an eyelash. But I can't begin to tell you what a struggle this became for me.
We did not have the money to make a full payment that month without dipping into savings that were set aside for another purpose. And it would have been no small blessing if this was a mysterious way of helping us to make ends meet. But what business do we have tagging a large multinational financial institution for $1,300? Just because they'd probably "never notice the money" didn't mean that we should dishonestly profit from their mistake.
I remember walking the dog in the alley, agonizing over what to do. Should I call or should I not? They told me once but I forgot. "Thou shalt not steal" is one of the Ten Commandments I had gotten a Gold Star for memorizing in Vacation Bible School. I specifically remember thinking that I would not talk to my wife about this. If I did the wrong thing, I did not want her implicated in my sin. It was one thing for me to burn in hell because of this temptation, it was a totally different thing to bring someone else down with me.
I decided to pay the amount posted as due, notwithstanding the double payment, and to let things slide for a month. Then, I reasoned, I would have the money to cover things and to set things straight. Fortunately for my wavering moral conscience, when my statement arrived the following month the company had indeed caught the mistake and I was off the integrity hook. But to this day, I puzzle over the proverbial "what if." What if they had not caught the mistake? Would I have called and set things straight? Or would I have become yet another hustler in white collar crime? Although I would like to think otherwise, I am humbled by the seductive power of that temptation. It was something I could have gotten away with, without a trace.
Then we come to the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the fifth chapter of Acts. In Acts chapter four we learn that the early church was filled with the Holy Spirit, teaching people about Jesus and proclaiming the resurrection of the dead. They were healing people and defying the authorities. To retaliate, the authorities threw Peter and John into prison; upon their release, they were threatened with further incarceration if they continued to preach and teach in the name of Jesus.
Returning to the others, Peter and John told them all that had happened. Instead of being intimidated, they were emboldened to trust in the mighty hand of God. The One who made heaven and earth could certainly carry them through the persecutions and deprivations that were coming their way. They had no interest other than to speak God's word and to embrace God's power. In response to their hostile environment, they agreed to hold everything in common, making sure there was not a needy person among them. Barnabas, for example, sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
The example of Ananias and Sapphira stood in stark contrast to the example of Barnabas, whose name meant "Son of Encouragement." They too sold a field and brought the money to lay at the apostles' feet. Perhaps they wanted to look good in the eyes of the community. Perhaps they hope to get their name listed in the program as a "Sponsor," a "Benefactor," or even a "Sustaining Member."
Whatever it was that motivated them, it was clearly not the interest of a church which had adopted the common purse as one of its core values. They put down enough money to get people's attention, but they also reserved a portion for themselves. This was arguably the prudent thing to do. But they did it all in secret, conspiring together to give the appearance of having laid all the money at the apostles' feet. When Peter exposed the lie -- before God and the church -- Ananias fell down and died. When Sapphira repeated the lie, she too keeled over. The whole incident understandably brought fear upon the entire church.
Now the point of this story, it seems to me, is not to get hung up on a God that would zap people like that. If you want, you can take some comfort in the fact that neither Peter nor God ever says, "I'm going to kill you because of your deception." The story is much more subtle and politic than that. Having been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, having their lie exposed and brought to the light, the scriptures simply tell us that Ananias and Sapphira fell down and died. It was apparently more than they could bear.
I remembered this story as I walked down the alley thinking about my VISA bill. Why else would I keep this information from my wife? It wasn't really that I didn't want to implicate her in the whole affair. It was that I didn't want my duplicity to be discovered and I wanted to keep the money. I knew that once I brought the matter to the light, I would have to own up to a certain lack of integrity that I neither admired nor wanted to face. By letting things go until I resolved them in my own mind, I was preserving a shred of dignity and the illusion of intended honesty.
If the story of Ananias and Sapphira makes anything clear, it is that God expects more from the church of Jesus Christ than the illusion of honesty. We are called to live with a radical commitment to the truth because anything less undermines the strength of our community and the redemption of our souls. The problem in Acts chapter five was not that the church was so desperate for money that they had to kill people who failed to honor their pledge. So I hope the Budget & Finance Committee doesn't get any wrongheaded ideas!
The problem was that the church was desperate for integrity. They wanted people who were totally committed to their core values, including the common purse. Ananias and Sapphira profoundly jeopardized that commitment not just by retaining a portion of the money, but also by telling the lie. Peter was quite clear in his reprimand that Ananias and Sapphira had been free to do anything they wanted with their money. They were not free, however, to lie about what they were giving before God and the church.
The Greek word for church in the New Testament is e,kklhsi,a (ekklesia). It means to be called out, and it was commonly used in secular society for a political body summoned forth by the town crier. It is interesting that the church chose this word to describe itself in relationship to the world. We were to be the called out people of God, the e,kklhsi,a, a new creation summoned forth by water and the Spirit. What made us different from the world? It was, first and foremost, our freedom from deceit over possessions.
This can be deduced from the fact that the word e,kklhsi,a does not appear in the book of Acts prior to the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
An e,kklhsi,a was created only after people realized that in this new community they were being asked to live with the highest standards of freedom and integrity. There were to be no self-serving games in this e,kklhsi,a when it came to money and possessions. No fudging of the books. No winking at personal use of the photocopier or the postal meter. No worrying about how to take care of our most basic needs. This e,kklhsi,a was to take care of each and every individual, without exception. Hold anything back, make any excuses, rationalize any deceit, reserve any materialism -- and there would literally be hell to pay. So, we read, that the whole e,kklhsi,a, and all who heard about these things, were filled with fear.
It is no wonder that such a radical commitment to the truth fills people with fear. It has been hard for me to muster the courage to use my own recent ethical dilemma as an illustration of the temptations we all face and fathom. What will people think? I'm the pastor, after all. If I'm not above such temptation, what can be expected from an average person in the pew? Or, to quote the disciples after Jesus warned them about the danger of riches, "Who, then, can be saved?" (Luke 18:26).
M. Scott Peck in his three books on The Road Less Traveled, cited in this morning's order of worship (1978, 1993, and 1997), talks about our commitment to the truth as one of four spiritual disciplines. As such, he elevates truth-telling to the ranks of prayer and fasting. When we give ourselves permission to manipulate rather than to face reality we fail to advance in our journey toward spiritual growth.
Unfortunately, Dr. Peck observes that most people do exactly that. We would rather die than come clean with the secrets of our lives. We lie not only to others, but to ourselves. We rationalize our behavior on the basis of outdated maps that no longer present an accurate view of the world. And we assume (with some justification) that everyone else does the same. As a result, no one trusts anyone anymore -- not even in the church. Ethical legerdemain has become so rampant, particularly when it comes to money, that our spiritual growth has been noticeably stunted. Who has not heard of the charlatan preacher?
"What does a life of total dedication to the truth mean?" asks Dr. Peck. "It means, first of all, a life of continuous and never-ending stringent self-examination. ... (It) also means a life of willingness to be personally challenged. ... The third thing (it) means is a life of total honesty." People lie in order to circumvent legitimate suffering. People live with total dedication to the truth in order to grow spiritually. We cannot have it both ways at once (1978).
Dr. Peck recognizes the complexities of this enterprise (1993). "There are no easy answers" is his third and final maxim (1997). But he celebrates the integrity of the early church as the primary commitment which enabled it to take the world by storm. It wasn't the miracles. It wasn't the sermons. It was the commitment of the people to live without compromises, fears, or games. It was their unabashed desire to honestly face the world with God as their witness, no matter what.
The result of this commitment was not unlike what happened to Israel in the days of Samuel. Samuel called people to account for their original vision of following Yahweh, without assimilating the practices and perversions of other gods. On the verge of a great battle with the Philistines, the people were driven back to this truth such that the Lord thundered with a mighty voice and threw the Philistines into confusion. The battle was won and the faith was renewed for yet another generation.
So it goes for us today. We too have the opportunity to choose whom we will serve. Do we serve the author of lies, with its perverted sense of justice? Or do we serve the Spirit of truth, with its promising sense of reality? It is my intention to never again waver over a VISA bill. I hope that you share this intention, whether at home or work, in church or community.
Nothing destroys trust faster than the discovery that someone has been unfaithful, in even the little things. Once lost, it takes a great deal of time and effort to regain. As a church we need to be vigilant in our campaign against the ways of the world. We are called to lives of authenticity, truthfulness, responsibility and faithfulness. We are called to set our values above ourselves. We are called to say what we mean and to mean what we say. We are called to discern right from wrong, and then to live accordingly. The church, when it is truly being the church, seeks to help people do this and live. Amen.
A Church that Serves a Broken World
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
October 26, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: Isaiah 58:6-11, 61:1-6, and Acts 16:6-15
Prayer: God of Grace and God of Glory, on your people pour your power. Speak your word. Move us to care for others. Show us the way to follow and to serve. Amen.
One does not have to be a social scientist to know that we live in a broken world. The sights and sounds of brokenness are all around us and sometimes fall very close to home. The members of this congregation are in no wise exempt.
Tony Campolo tells the story of what happened to his wife, late one night, when she was home alone with their girls, ages 2 and 4. She was in the kitchen when she heard a knock. With caution and fear she opened the door, and saw the face of a frightened nine-year-old boy.
He said that his father was beating up his mother and he asked Tony's wife if she would call the police. Of course she did, comforting the boy as they waited together in her living room. The boy told her a sad story of regularly being locked in a closet while his father would beat his mother. But this night he escaped from the closet and the mother screamed for him to get help.
Tony's wife asked the boy why he knocked on her door, of all the doors in the neighborhood. He said that when he came outside everything was black, except for the light in her house. He simply took off and ran to the light.
That is the image I would start and leave you with this morning. In a world full of brokenness and pain, there needs to be places to which people can run. Places where the light is still shining. Places where people can take refuge, regardless of their condition. Places where people can rest and call for help.
This, if you ask me, is a fine description of the church of Jesus Christ. We are called to be the light of the world, a light to which people can run in times of need -- a need that has risen considerably in recent decades.
A survey taken in the 1940s identified the following top seven problems in school: 1.) talking, 2.) chewing, 3.) making noise, 4.) running in the hall, 5.) cutting in line, 6.) violating the dress code, and 7.) littering. A survey taken 40 years later, in 1989, generated a very different list indeed: 1.) Drug abuse, 2.) Alcohol abuse, 3.) Pregnancy, 4.) Suicide, 5.) Rape, 6.) Robbery, and 7.) Assault. ("See Dick and Jane Lie, Cheat and Steal" hosted by Tom Selleck on ABC, April 26, 1989)
Such problems are reported daily in the news and depicted regularly in movies and television. Instead of being shocked, we are numbed into a dumb acquiescence by the constant exploitation of the very brokenness that we, as a church, are called to confront and repair. There's big money in the brokenness of the world.
What's scary about these statistics of brokenness is that they have become so familiar as to no longer produce much of a reaction. We read daily reports of violence, addiction, abuse, poverty, and the occult with a ho-hum, what-can-we-do attitude. One Chicago couple was recently charged with 1,200 counts of child abuse against their four children. Celebrities and politicians are regularly accused of ever more sensational indiscretions. It seems there's no end to the sordid affairs of the world.
I was struck by the following paragraph in our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure book. "Patrick Murphy, a lawyer for the Cook County Defenders Office, remembers that ten years ago the county handled a child abuse case once a month, and everyone in the office would read the report with horror. Now these cases come up 20 times a week, and no on in the office is moved to review them except by assignment. In 1986 Cook County had 8,000 children in custody. A decade later, in 1996, there were 45,000 boys and girls in government care, 45,000 children with 'mangled psyches and emotions.'" (J. Daniel Lupton, I Like Church, But..., Destiny Image Pubs., Inc. • Shippensburg, PA, 1996).
This is the world in which we find ourselves. Broken. Desensitized. Cynical. Depressed. It's no wonder that so many people have given up trying to make a difference, eventually succumbing to the temptations themselves. There's just too much coming at us from too many directions at once.
Into this morass of cultural meltdown comes the message of the gospel:
This has been the gospel message since the beginning of time. From the days of creation, we have been charged with the responsibility of caring for a broken world in collaboration with the Spirit and Wisdom of God. The various covenants, as recorded in the Old Testament, can all be viewed as efforts by God to help people contend and cope with the ways of the world. The prophets spoke their concern without regard to the impossibility of their clarion call.
"Loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house, and cover the naked. Welcome your own kin, remove the pointing of the finger, and stop the speaking of evil. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer. Then you shall cry for help, and God will say, "Here I am." Then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. Then the Lord shall make your bones strong; and you shall be like a spring whose waters never fail." (Isaiah 58:6-11).
Those tasks were no more impossible in ancient Israel than they are today. Violence, addiction, abuse, poverty, and the occult are not creations of the late 20th century, even if we are seeing and hearing more about them than ever before. The teachers and prophets of old trusted God and the community of faith to help them overcome the brokenness of the world. We must not give up on these resources in the struggle for justice and peace, otherwise we may give up on the struggle itself.
Some Christians have done just that. They view the church as a fortress, a saving ark, designed to shut out the problems of the world. But nothing could be further from the truth. When Jesus started his ministry, according to the gospel of Luke, he identified the problems of the world as his special calling. His text was the passage we read responsively this morning in Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19).
This was the gospel Jesus came to proclaim. Not a separation from the world but an engagement with the world. Jesus welcomed those whom the world rejected in order to apply to them the healing balm of God's compassion and grace. Jesus would encounter people and meet their needs. He would heal people who were sick or dying. He would feed people who were hungry. He would teach people who were confused. He would commission people who were following him. The enormity of the world's problems did not stop him from responding to each and every individual.
You've probably heard the story of the young boy walking along a beach covered with thousands of stranded starfish. As he walked, he would reach down and throw the starfish back into the sea, one at a time. Someone came by who questioned the boy, saying, "Why are you bothering with this? The beach goes on for miles. Your effort will not make much of a difference." At which point the boy reached down, picked up another starfish, and threw it into the sea, saying, "It makes a difference to this one."
We see this Spirit in the ministry of Jesus. By relying upon and invoking the power of God, Jesus was able to respond to people without reservation. He never burned out on compassion. And he left behind a group of followers who were charged to continue this ministry, in his name. We were to be the light to which the world would come running.
In Troas, the apostle Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia pleading with him, saying, "Come over here and help us." Paul and his companions left immediately, only to meet up with Lydia who was soon baptized and allowed her house to become the hub of Paul's operations in the region. From there, the westward expansion of Christianity began in earnest. It was a direct response to the needs of people.
It is worth noting that Paul and his companions were quickly and frequently thrown into jail for their activities. It is also worth noting that Jesus and his companions did not limit their activities to the care and feeding of individual souls. In both instances, there were confrontations with the ruling authorities. But could it be any other way?
Involvement with the needs of people quickly drives us to the question of what's causing the problem. Although conservatives tend to blame the individual while liberals tend to blame society, I think most people know the answer is both/and rather than either/or. So Jesus chased the money changers out of the Temple. Or Paul contended with the Roman officials. And they both ended up being arrested.
Yesterday at our Central Southeast Association Meeting some of us heard about the activities of BREAD, a church based community organizing project which now has almost 40 member churches in Columbus and Franklin County. The lead organizer, John Aeschbury, told the story of their efforts to pressure city and county officials into developing new bus routes that would help people get from inner-city neighborhoods to suburban job corridors. The story he told had plenty of biblical overtones replete with delicate negotiations and dramatic confrontations.
What gives people the courage to care for others and to confront the conditions which make life miserable? I cannot speak for others, but for those of us who call ourselves Christian the courage comes from Jesus Christ himself. He is our example and our sustaining power. No person is beyond help. No situation is beyond hope. No system is beyond repair. That is our conviction and calling as Christians. That is our privilege and responsibility. That is our opportunity and blessing. Do these things and the world, like the boy in Tony Campolo's story, will come running to our door. Amen.
A Church that Encounters a Living God
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
November 2, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:10)
Today's Texts: 1 Kings 18:21-39, Psalm 42:1-11, and Acts 4:23-31
Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
This morning's Old Testament lesson is a classic, made-for-TV version of encountering God. Allow me to set the stage: Elijah was a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel who lived during the twenty-two year reign of King Ahab -- the Israelite King who married a Phoenician princess, Jezebel, and who brought the worship of her Phoenician god, Baal, to the capital city of Samaria.
In response to this accommodation, the word of God came to Elijah, who was living east of the Jordan River. Political expediency would have to give way to theological integrity. The God who made heaven and earth was not just another god, in the great pantheon of the ancient world. The God who made heaven earth was the only god, above whom there were no others, and beside whom there would be no rivals. Confront Ahab with his misguided schemes, came the word, and expose the lie of Jezebel's god.
The confrontation started with the proclamation of a drought. This represented a direct challenge to Baal's authority over the natural world. Baal was a fertility god who alledgedly brought water to the fields and life to the people. Now Yahweh, the God who delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery, claimed hegemony over this realm as well. There would be no water until Yahweh said otherwise, nor would there be any other gods. For three years, the skies withheld their bounty while Elijah took refuge at the home of a Phoenician widow along the Mediterranean coast.
Finally, the word of God came to Elijah again. He went back to Israel, announced the end of the drought, and confronted the prophets of Baal. King Ahab called Elijah the "troubler of Israel," but Elijah shot back: "I have not troubled Israel but you have by forsaking the commandments of God and following the Baals. Bring out your prophets and assemble them for me at Mount Carmel."
So we arrive at the point of this morning's lesson. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal against one lone prophet of Yahweh. The camera swings from one side to the other, as if to emphasize the discrepancy. Then it pans through the crowd, who had assembled for the contest, with the voice over of Elijah's penetrating cry: "How long will you go limping with two different opinions? There can be only one, true God. There can be only one who judges, one who saves, one who provides, one who answers prayer. Follow the God who lives."
So the contest begins. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal call upon their god to consume a bull offering laid upon a pyre of wood. But nothing happens. Elijah mocks and taunts them, suggesting that perhaps their god is sleeping or out to lunch. Call louder, he urges, and perhaps your god will stir. Still nothing happens, even when the prophets cut themselves with swords and lances.
Finally, it's time for special effects that would thrill even George Lucas. Elijah rebuilds the altar with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel. He stacks the wood and sacrifices the bull. Then he drenches the whole bloody mess with four jars of water -- once , twice, three times -- until the water soaks into the wood and fills the surrounding trenches. Finally Elijah calls upon Yahweh, the God of his ancestors, to make himself known. The resulting conflagration was enough to consume even the stones and the water in the trenches.
The crowd was impressed, to say the least. Having lost the contest, the crowd turns on the prophets of Baal, brings them down from the mountain, and kills them.
This classic story of biblical monotheism, set in the context of a violent, polytheistic world, goes to the heart and soul of what each and every one of us hope for in our relationship with God. We may not hope for pyrotechnics, and we may not seek vengeance on our enemies, but we do hope for God to be more than just a figment of our imagination. We do hope for God to be real, alive, and influential. We do hope for God to respond when we call.
The author of Kings is careful to define two theaters of action in this story. On the one hand, we have the prophets. They are the up front actors in the story. On the other hand, we have the people -- who are far more than spectators. The drama being played out up front is designed to bring people to the point of decision. This is not the entertainment of a gladiatorial contest, this is the transformation of being exposed to the living God.
Transformation as we make a decision to follow God. Transformation as we take responsibility for God's apparent absence in the land. Transformation as we enter into the mystery of call and response. This drama on the top of Mount Carmel is the Old Testament equivalent of a Billy Graham crusade. Elijah calls people to the mountain, preaches a sermon, and then presents an offering to God. When that offering is accepted, people respond with a dramatic outpouring of faith.
When was the last time you felt anything like this in your relationship with God? When was the last time you allowed yourself to feel anything like this in your relationship with God? Our modern, rational, sophisticated, critical, intellectual selves have a certain wariness about crusades, rallies, and the emotionalism of pyrotechnic preachers. I include myself in this category. But in the process of maintaining our distance, we risk losing our connection to the life-giving power of love. We too need the joy that comes from seeing God in our midst. We too need to encounter the living God. And we dare not be embarrassed about saying so.
Astonishment, appreciation, thanksgiving, and understanding: these are not flat, one-dimensional experiences of secularity. These are round, multi-dimensional experiences of the living God. They represent the intersection of Spirit and flesh. They can be claimed as acts of God no less than the pyrotechnics on Mount Carmel.
In the book of Acts, the early church made such a claim with regard to the release of Peter and John from jail. There was nothing supernatural about their release. The authorities had detained them over night for disturbing the peace. They had healed a crippled beggar in the name of Jesus, preached in the streets, and performed other signs and wonders resulting in the conversion of great numbers of men and women. When the beggar presented himself before the court, along with a crowd of people, the authorities had no choice but to release Peter and John, ordering them to not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
The release of Peter and John from jail was claimed by the early church as a gift of the living God. Everyone prayed until the building shook where they were gathered. They praised God. They acknowledged God's sovereignty. They recognized God's creation. They elevated God above the kings of the earth. They proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. They called for boldness to teach and heal. They disobeyed the court order. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Juan Carlos Ortiz suggests that this is what happens when we put into practice the principles of scripture. In his book Disciple (Creation House •Altamonte Springs, FL, 1975) he talks about the change that came over his church in Buenos Aires when they learned how to pray like the New Testament church. They no longer said "Alleluia!" in the abstract. They became very concrete about why they were praising God. Just as the early church praised God for the release of Peter and John, or for the creation of the world, or for the healing of a crippled beggar so did they start to praise God for specific signs and wonders.
This practice transformed the church in Buenos Aires from one that was simply going through the motions to one that was experiencing the living God. They learned how to set aside the language of complaint and how to speak the language of praise. Ortiz calls the language of praise the language of God's reign, and he suggests that we learn this language much as we would any other. First, we learn the vocabulary, then we learn the rules, finally we practice, practice, practice until we speak it as second nature. Then we keep speaking it or else we start losing it.
What would it be like to go through a day, seeing God in every situation and every person? Juan Carlos Ortiz thinks it would be a perfect day. The language of praise has the ability make every day a perfect day. Hot or cold, friend or foe, success or failure, triumph or tragedy, pain or pleasure -- the goodness of God can be seen working through them all. In Paul's letter to Timothy, he gives the following advice: "Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude." (1 Timothy 4:4). The language of praise helps us to encounter the living God.
Whether or not we choose to learn and to speak this language is up to us. But it can make all the difference in the world. Perhaps you remember the story of Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who was arrested by the Nazis in World War II and was stripped of everything -- property, family, possessions. He had spent years researching and writing a book on the importance of finding meaning in life-concepts that later would be known as logotherapy. When he arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, even his manuscript, which he had hidden in the lining of his coat, was taken away.
"I had to undergo and overcome the loss of my spiritual child," Frankl wrote. "Now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own! I found myself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning." He was still wrestling with that question a few days later when the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up their clothes.
"I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber," said Frankl. "Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the main Jewish prayer, 'Shema Yisrael' (Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.)
"How should I have interpreted such a 'coincidence,'" he concludes, "other than as a challenge to 'live' my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?" Later, as Frankl reflected on his ordeal, he wrote in his book Man's Search for Meaning, "There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life.... (Those) who (have) a 'why' to live for can bear almost any 'how.'"
Victor Frankl learned to speak the language of praise under the most extreme circumstances, and in the process he encountered the living God. We too have this ability -- to choose how to respond to the circumstances of our lives. "How long will you limp between two opinions," was the question Elijah posed to his congregation on the top of Mount Carmel. That question must be asked and answered in every generation. Encountering the living God is not something that happens by accident. We must choose life, or we will die. We must speak the language of praise, or wallow in the wasteland of complaint. Amen.
A Church that Anticipates a Great Future
Robert C. Kutschbach
The First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Columbus, Ohio
November 9, 1997
Memory Verse: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:10
Today's Texts: Jeremiah 31:1-15, Psalm 71:1-8, Matthew 16:13-21
Good Morning! Let us give thanks for this glorious day that the Lord has made. Let us pray. "Most kind and gracious Father, we ask that you be with us this morning as we contemplate who we are and where we are going as your church. We thank you for the many blessings which we have enjoyed and we ask that you reveal to us your plan for this church when we are worthy to receive it. Give us strength and courage to have faith in our journey while you prepare us. And let us always be mindful that it is your work which we are doing, not our own. We ask you to bless this church not only in the name of our fathers, but in our own names and in the names of our children. May this church long serve to your Glory. Amen.
This morning we conclude our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure. The purpose of this adventure was to focus attention on issues which may be worthy of priority in our church's future. The intent was not to say that these topics are necessarily the most important issues we as First Congregational Church need to address, but to ask the question should they be? Before we discuss today's final chapter, let us review the seven previous themes and assess how we are doing on those issues.
Theme #1 was The Church You've Always Longed for Works at Caring for the Church Family. This church has long been known for its caring and compassionate environment. Members routinely reach out in times of illness and grief to each other. I wonder though how deep this caring goes. Last year a great split occurred within this church and I failed to see very many members move quickly to heal those wounds. In fact many were reluctant to even try. If we are to have a bright future we must be more sensitive to each other's needs.
Theme #2 The Church You've Always Longed for Captures the Heart of the Community. We certainly do that at least once a year with Bethlehem on Broad Street. But there are many other efforts which also qualify. This church has been involved in our community in many vital areas over the years. We may not capture the heart of our community today as well as we did in Washington Gladden's day, but it doesn't mean that we aren't trying.
Theme #3 The Church You've Always Longed for Welcomes All People. One of the overriding messages which came from the forum in the Spring was the importance to this church of cultural diversity. Because of our downtown location this diversity allows each of us to connect with people of other neighborhoods and walks of life. This diversity helps each of us learn from others' perspectives. This theme appears to be deeply ingrained into the fabric of our church. Let us be careful, however, not to place labels. Diversity is not counting how many different people we have of different races or backgrounds. Diversity has to do with the melding of people together. And when we start putting labels on each other, "This is an early service person, a late service person, a choir member, a mission committee member,", we reduce each other to the lowest of our common denominators. So let us lift up our diversity and rejoice in it.
Theme #4 The Church You've Always Longed for Empowers each Individual. Several weeks ago it seemed to me the message of the day implied that our Congregational Structure in many ways inhibited individual creativity and expression. That somehow we were focused on wielding control over our members. I totally disagree. If anything I believe our system assists with empowerment. Take as an example this 50 Day Spiritual Adventure. The idea was first proposed by Brad Palmer, our Commissioner of Evangelism and Church Growth. The committee immediately embraced it and recommended all church leaders partake. Brad then took it to Council and Trustees who made suggestions and added their support. Next Adult Education suggested a Sunday Track could be developed to assist members who were participating. This eventually expanded into several tracks and finally the idea of a corresponding sermon series was raised and adopted. If anything, I believe our system of organization greatly promoted the project rather than stifling it. This is just one small example of how our structure is a blessing not a hindrance.
Theme #5 The Church You've Always Longed for Models Integrity. I would hope that any Christian Church would place a high priority on this one. Truth, honesty and living by your words and by God's Commandments must always be our priority. Let us commit ourselves to rid this church of deceit, double talk, hidden personal agendas and anything short of truthfulness and forthrightness.
Theme #6 The Church You've Always Longed for Serves a Broken World. Along with diversity this theme may be the nearest to our hearts at First Church. Mission Outreach is our heritage. For most of our history this has been our hallmark. From Washington Gladden's social gospel to our recent efforts of local missions, refugee resettlement, Habitat housing and Bethlehem on Broad Street, this is and will be our church's dedication to serve the world around us.
Theme #7 The Church You've Always Longed for Encounters the Living God. This may be the biggest challenge for our church. I believe that each of us encounters the living God in our own ways and in our own lives. It is good and healthy to share these with each other. But we are not accustomed to doing this in a public way. So we must resolve to work on this in a comfortable and safe environment, free from ridicule or judgement. God is definitely in this church, but we all experience him in different ways. Let us encourage each other to share the miracles of our own lives openly.
Now to this morning's topic: Theme #8 The Church You've Always Longed for Anticipates a Great Future. Should First Church anticipate a great future? Some would say YES! With the nearly completed Capital Campaign and beautiful restoration of our building and with all the young families in our midst, with a building that's paid for, and hundreds of dedicated members, with a two million dollar endowment, our fabulous music, of course, we should anticipate a great future.
Yet others say how can we anticipate a great future with the problems we face. I am continually reminded that our membership has been declining for decades. Fewer members, means that the remaining members must make bigger pledges each year to keep us afloat. And each year a few more of our devoted members pass away or leave the church. In the last several years there seems to be more unrest and turmoil than ever before. And its not only our church facing these problems, but it seems that most mainline churches have the same problems. With all of this to deal with how can we be optimistic?
Let us turn to our Old Testament lesson today for some insight. The story is of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was given the gift of prophesy as a child, probably as a teenager. He really didn't want this gift but was persuaded by God to accept it and be faithful in it. Jeremiah was indeed faithful. He was given many prophesies and faithfully but sometimes hesitantly conveyed the messages to his people. The message commonly was concerning how his people had betrayed their covenant with God and they must repent and change their ways. The Kingdom of Israel had been destroyed in 721 B.C. and now it was 586 B.C. and Jeremiah had been foretold that Judah including Jerusalem would soon fall to Babylon. But God had also said that one day this land would be given back to his people. As the siege grew near, Jeremiah found himself under house arrest from the king of Judah due to his public warnings of the imminency. Jeremiah had also been foretold that his uncle would try to sell him some land. When his uncle's son did indeed approach him to buy the land for its right of redemption, Jeremiah took this as a sign from God and bought it. Now why would Jeremiah buy this land which he knew would soon be taken by Babylon? This he knew would come to pass. His cousin argued that he could redeem his rights of ownership when one day God restored this land to his people. So Jeremiah as a sign of faith to his people proceeded to buy it. He did this in a very flamboyant way. He ordered the deed be drawn up with copies. He weighed the silver payment out carefully, he called in witnesses and court officials, he signed the deed and sealed it, he gave it to Baruch and told him to seal it in an earthenware jar so that they may last for a very long time. All of this to show people how serious he was.
Why was Jeremiah so confident? Not only did he trust God, God had also revealed the New Covenant to Jeremiah. The new covenant is where you and I and this church come in. The New Covenant is where God promised that all people who follow him will be protected not just the children of Israel. This is where God promises to protect the faithful in the church and through his son, Jesus Christ we are redeemed.
One last word about Jeremiah. Jeremiah was incredibly concerned about the future of his people after the fall of Judah. How would they survive, how could their religion continue? He urged them not to disband and migrate, but to stay together, stay there, and be faithful to each other and to God. Six Hundred years later Paul has the same message. In Romans 12 verses 9-14, he admonishes that we should be devoted to one another and in Hebrew 12 verses 25-30, he says the Heavens and the Earth may be shaking around us, but those who are receiving the Kingdom (that being the Church) cannot be shaken (meaning he will protect us). The message today is still the same. GOD IS WITH US!
With confidence in the future and our faith resting in God, let us lift up our sights to greater days. Already our beautiful building has been restored by those with faith. I now put before you some of my dreams for this church for your consideration. Let us resolve to build God's Church, to spread the good news and to welcome new friends into the fold, not for budgetary concerns, but because it is God's will. Consider if you will a goal of 100 new members next year as a milestone and let us not forget past friends, let us endeavor to reunite at least 25 of our lost friends. Let us consider broadening our outreach by creating or reenergizing a mission project in time for our church's 150th Anniversary. Perhaps this project could equal the scope of our current miracle of Bethlehem on Broad Street.
Let us remember our heritage and once again be the leading church in our community for Social Justice either by reestablishing the Gladden Lecture and or by some other not yet thought of forum. Let us continue to build on those areas where we already excel, those being our music program, our children's education and our adult education.
Ladies and Gentleman, I believe our future is bright. I believe that our greatest days lie ahead. But I emphasize that our future is not dependant on the beautiful building we are in, not the marvelous organ which we hear, nor is it even dependant on who is moderator or who stands in the pulpit. Our future depends on how we care for one another, how we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and how much faith we have in God's Word.
Fellow members, guests and friends join with me this morning in rejoicing in our fellowship, and rededicating ourselves to the future of this church in doing God's will. May God be with us and this church both now and forever. Amen.