It is the task of every Christian to
determine his or her place in the mission of the Church.
Your attitude is very important both in working within the Church, and
in witnessing to the community the importance you attach to the
Church. Few things impact the Church as negatively as having a
participant’s actions reflect indifference. This means that Church participants
need to determine what their skills and abilities are, and then offer
them to the Church. From cooking a Church supper to playing the
organ; from ushering to visiting the sick; from keeping the building
and grounds in good repair to leading a study or prayer group; each
function is important and each is a service to God.
Jesus said, “go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature.” That is a huge mandate that often
overwhelms us. Still, the basic question facing us is, what am I to do?
How you and I respond to that question and what we do about it
determines to a large extent who we are. In Romans 12, verse 3, Paul says, “
For by grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober
judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned
him.” That statement lets no one off of the hook. Every single
one of you has a talent and has ability. Not all talents and
abilities are the same, but all are equally important when they are
given to God, and they can be used by God. Some pretend to have talents or
abilities which they do not have. That, also, is hypocrisy. God
asks us to know whom we are, to be whom we are, and to make ourselves
available for service.
Dr. Jim Glasse, formerly president of
Lancaster Theological Seminary (Lancaster, PA) suggests that many
Protestants have been reared with a negative self-identity. That
is certainly true of me. I knew I wasn’t a Jew. I knew it
not because I knew what the teachings of Judaism were, but because all
of the stories I heard said "We are not like that." I knew I wasn’t a Catholic, because
I didn’t attend any of their masses, and I was told many stories about
who they were, most of them false and inflammatory. So, I knew by
not being Jewish and not being Catholic that I was Protestant. In
Rosedale, where I grew up, there were just four Churches. We never went
to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, the
Pentecostal Church, or the Anglican Church. Therefore, I knew I
must be from the United Church of Canada. As kids, we told
stories about the other groups to make it clear to our minds, who they
were and why we were not a part of them. As I grew older and began to meet
other people in various parts of the world, I suddenly found out that
there were Catholics who didn’t act like I thought Catholics should
act. There were Anglicans and Pentecostals and Latter Day Saints
who didn’t fit the mould that I had been told, or the stories that I
had heard. The Catholics started to eat meat on Fridays and sing gospel
songs. Then I met an Anglican who didn’t drink, and a Pentecostal who
did. I was confused!
When all these folks didn’t fit the stereotype I had of them, I was at
sea. I didn’t know who I was. It happened again in the late
1980’s. I had heard stories and, I must confess, told stories
about who homosexual people were. But when I sat down and talked with
them, and studied theology with them in the same classroom, I found the
stories I had heard and the stories I had told simply were not
true. And I had to find out who I was.
Reared in a very conservative
religious home, I learned to live within boundaries that I was told
were immovable. When I found out those boundaries were not only
unrealistic, but also untrue, I found myself in a huge state of
changing self-identity. Unfortunately, putting down others had formed my self- identity, which is a way of
suggesting we are better. That is what the Bible calls sin, and
that is what our scripture passage is all about. Remember, two
men went to the temple to pray. One said "I thank you I am not
like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax
collector. I fast twice a week and I pay a tithe on all I get.
See how great I am Lord."
Meanwhile, the tax collector couldn’t even lift his eyes upward.
He simply, in humility said "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner."
And the master said "he who exhalts himself will be humbled, but the
one who humbles himself will be exhalted."
How far do we go to determine whether
or not one has had a valid faith experience? How do we escape
from the judgmental attitude of implying that “we are better?”
How do we learn to deal with our prejudices and be content with being
the best people we can be where we are? That’s an attitudinal challenge. Down in North Carolina, there is a
religious group who validates a follower’s faith by his or her ability
to handle snakes- poisonous snakes. Their style of worship is highly
charged with ecstatic emotion. When things have heated up to a fever
pitch, a box of life snakes is brought out, and worshippers take a
snake out of the box and begin to handle it. This is how you tell who
is a valid believer and who is not. It’s fool proof. If you can
take a snake out of the box, handle it and put it back into the box
without being bitten, you are in. If you are bitten-well--- you know
the result. It is the
contention of Dr. Glasse that most of us are snakehandlers. The
difference is that the people in North Carolina used real snakes, while
most of us use spiritual snakes.
Remember the scripture from last week?
Paul was dealing with spiritual snakehandlers. Remember how he
said: "Now there are varieties gifts, but one spirit; and there are
varieties of service, but the same Lord." Later, he asks "Are all
apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, do all work miracles,
etc." Yet, even today, in most Churches- even in this Church-
there are spiritual snakehandlers. Unaware of their actions, they
project the image of “I am first class Christian, you are second
class. I am a graduate school believer, you are a kindergarten
Christian. Let's think about them here. Over here there are people who are
enthusiasts. They say "What our Church here in Squamish needs is
enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is an important ingredient of the faith and
enthusiasm is what will get the attention of people in our community
faster than anything else. Let’s get peppy songs and get a beat on the
synthesizer. Let’s clap our hands and get excited. Enthusiasm is
contagious, and if we get enthused enough, others will hear about it
and come. No doubt about it- enthusiasm is what we need. It is number 1
one on the list."
Meanwhile, back there on the left are the eggheads: the intellectuals.
This is all very interesting, they say, all this jumping around and
singing and clapping, but what about the content? We need serious study
of the Bible and its historical roots. We need to probe into the
foundation of our United Church and see its parts and how it has grown
and changed over the years.
We need to concentrate on the hymns of accepted validity, listen to
their words and revel in their music. They have stood the test of time;
we don’t need this faddish stuff. We need study. We need history. We
need an approach that is tried and proven.
But right down here in the front is
another group that says prayer is the most important thing that this
Church can be doing. If this Church is to go forward, it is going
to go forward on its knees. Praying is the basic of our faith and
those who are strong believers will be strong prayers. We need to pray
about our lives and their relationship to God, and we need to pray
about others- those in trouble all around the world, those who are
needy here in Squamish, and our children and the problems that they
face. Oh yes, prayer is what this Church needs if it is to grow.
Meantime, back there in the kitchen
are a few folks who are preparing food for the congregation. They are
saying, all this enthusiasm and study and prayer is fine and dandy, but
what our Church really needs is people who will work. We need people
who will cook, cleanup, mow the lawn, stuff food bags, teach Sunday
School, sing in the choir and serve on boards and committees. If
we don’t have people who will work, all this other stuff simply won’t
be of any value.
In one way or another, I am sure you
can recognize these folks. Good people all. They are part of
every congregation, and perhaps you will recall that Paul had them in
his congregation in Corinth. That is why he said "Each one of you is
part of the body. Together you constitute a body- a Church." All are
needed. Paul continues “I want
you to desire the greater gifts, so I am going to show you a better
way. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels (there are the
enthusiasts) but have no love I am a noisy gong or a clanging
symbol. If I have
all prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
(there are the eggheads) and if I have faith so as to move mountains,
(there are the pray-ers) but have not love, I am nothing. If I give
away all that I have and deliver my body to be burned (there are the
workers) but have not love, I gain nothing.
There you have it. TOGETHER we are the
body of Christ. Together we are a Church that has something to give the
Squamish area. All are needed, not as spiritual snakehandlers to judge
each other, but as co-workers. Working together in love, that is “The
More Excellent Way” about which Paul is speaking and that is the way of
service and work that we need if we are to be a growing and influential
part of this corridor.
You see, that is the failure of New Age thinking and meditative
exercises that get you out of the world and in touch with so called
reality. Paul is stating that practicing the Christian life is
using the talents one has for the good of all. Collectively, with
varying talents, we are the Church. Christianity is a social religion.
It is not a private, introspective faith.
William Willimon, in his
inspirational book, ‘The Gospel For The Person Who has Everything” puts
it this way: “The basic issue here is not so
much what you think about people or even what you think about the
Church." The heart of the matter is what do you believe about
God. Against all of those who contend that God is to be found by
getting inside of oneself, or getting outside the world, the Christian
faith bases itself on the scandalous belief that God became a man and
lived in this world. The traditional Christian belief in the virgin
birth of Jesus is not proof that Jesus was divine and extraordinary. It
is an affirmation that in the birth of Jesus, God entered into the
human and the ordinary. If a common, everyday simple person, like Mary
can be used by God to give the world its salvation, perhaps the rest of
us common, everyday, simple people can be useful too. The theological doctrine of the
incarnation (in the body) says that just as God is revealed in the
life, death, and resurrection of a first century man named Jesus, so
God can be revealed in other men and women today. You cannot find the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- or for that matter the God of Mary,
Peter and Paul- by withdrawing into your subjectivity, or fleeing from
the world. You can’t, because God has chosen to be in the world, in the
midst of people. The Church is an expression of our firm belief
in the incarnation. If you don’t expect to find God in that fat
usher who greets you at the door on Sunday morning, in the reading of
an ancient and disordered book called the Bible, in the quivering voice
of that aging soprano who sings in the choir, in the sermons of that
well-meaning but poorly endowed preacher, in the smile of that kindly
old man or the squirms of the restless toddlers who sit on either side
of you on the pew, then there is no point in bothering with the Church.
The scandal of the Christian faith,
the real stumbling block, is that it points to a Jew from Nazareth (can
anything good come out of Nazareth?) and says “that is what the son of
God looks like” The scandal of the church is that it points to a rag-tag
conglomeration of partly weak and partly strong individuals,
sometimes faithful and sometimes foolish people, and it says, “that is
what the kingdom of God looks like.” The word has become flesh
and dwelt among us. Where two or three are gathered, there God is
present.
When someone asked Jesus what heaven looked like, he told them that
delightful parable of the great banquet. When all the nice and proper
people had turned down the master’s invitation, the master invited all
the ragamuffins and rogues, prostitutes and tax-collectors to eat at
his table. If you can’t
believe that the Kingdom of heaven looks like that banquet table, then
you’ll never believe that the Church looks like the struggling group of
sinners over at old First Church or Squamish United Church who eat
around the communion table. (Willimon, The Gospel For The Person Who
has Everything” Judson Press 1978-page 84f)
The Church of today is limited by our
unfaithfulness, our lethargy, our timidity, our ignorance, our fear,
our self-centerdness and our pride. In short, we modern day disciples
are just like the original twelve. And yet it is to these people-
you and me- that Jesus left the keys to the Kingdom. Still, I find that there is a bit of
snakehandling in me. Sometimes I am an enthusiast, sometimes an
intellectual; sometimes it’s a prayer I make, or an idea, and at
other times it’s a job I want to do. The snakehandler in me wants
everyone to line up and do whatever it is that I want done at the time. Thankfully, there is also a loving
Christian in me who wants all gifts to be expressed, and is grateful
for the people in this Church who possess differing talents.
Together, we are the Church.--- And we are justified when with the
tax-collector of old we go home knowing that God has heard our plea for
forgiveness. The
Pharisees railed against Jesus because he ate and drank with sinners.
Thanks be to God, He chooses the same dinner companions today!