“The ‘Perfect’ Church” Laurie's Sermon July 13th 2008

Scriptures

1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ." 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Acts 15:1-12
1 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.1 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses." 6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." 12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done.

Isaiah 55:6-13
6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

“The ‘Perfect’ Church”
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Acts 15:1-12; Isaiah 55:6-13

My experience at the 218th GA ran the gauntlet of exciting, amazing, humbling, frustrating, overwhelming and ultimately exhausting. The weight of what I was doing loomed even heavier over me than the weight of the propaganda, pleas, and pamphlets I received in the mail before I left. What tempered that and made it more bearable were the several letters and cards I received from individuals and sessions and congregations than knew only my name, but whose sole purpose in contacting me was to let me know that they were lifting me up and holding me in prayer during this period of awesome responsibility. It meant so much to me and I would suggest that some of us do the same thing for someone before and during the next assembly in 2010.

What made this responsibility harder for me is the fact that I am a peace-maker by nature. That has been my role in my family for many years…I was the one sent to talk to the other, the reasoning one asked to mediate or explain or mend. I think this peace-making role has been both a blessing and a curse in my life. It is a blessing in that much of the time I am able to try to see both sides of an issue, look for what is good or what may make sense about each argument and try to find what those good things might have in common. I am able to openly listen most of the time, holding off judgment. What is the curse is that in doing this, I can sometimes resist making a firm decision or forming a personal opinion. And I know that this nature has at times become a fence-sitting cop-out that kept me from sticking my neck out.

This handicapped me at times in San Jose because I could only punch one button on my voting machine at a time – yes or no. Though I can say I voted on every issue brought before the assemble, after more than 400 votes, I now can’t remember which button I pushed on which issue much of the time. I tried to open myself up to the leading of God’s Spirit, but I know there were times I voted on pure personal opinion opting out of consulting God. I can’t tell you how hard it was to try to really listen and ask for God’s guidance ALL THE TIME! Such asking is always risky because it can mean that I might hear what I personally don’t like.

But I felt the most handicapped in a conversation with the older retired doctor from San Antonio who was assigned to sit to my right for all plenary sessions. He was a wonderful man with a great sense of humor who also felt the weight of the responsibilities before us. He looked at me one evening toward the end of the assembly during a particularly intense debate on a sensitive subject. There was sadness in his eyes…really the look of pure shock and grief when one experiences a great loss out of the blue. He said, “I just don’t think there is a place left for me any more in the Presbyterian Church.”

My heart wanted to cry out to him, “No, don’t say that…you are so faithful and so honest and compassionate – we need people like you, people that…” But I couldn’t say anything, words just would not form because I could see his side of the issue, I understood and felt his pain just like I could see and understand and feel the same things that those on the other side of the tough issues were experiencing. All I could do was place my hand on his arm, give it a squeeze and try to show him the most understanding and compassionate look I knew how to express. His eyes and his statement have haunted me ever sense.

There is pain all around and between and in and through our denomination and really the same is true for most Christian denominations. As the body of Christ, as members of the one true church, we all are broken, we are hurting and we are grieving. We are a tattered and divided witness in need of much mending. While all of this sounds so sad and maybe hopeless, we need look no further than scripture to find that we are experiencing the same pains and illnesses that the body of Christ has experience since before its foundation. Remember that the disciples, while their Lord was still on this earth and in their very midst, would argue and fuss, show jealousy and conceit, grab for power and attention. In many ways are we are not far removed from our beginnings.

After finding some time to think about the doctor’s statement, I realized that one possible response I could have offered is that there is no perfect church. There is no such thing as a perfect congregation or denomination, perfection is just not something that we can attain in our lifetime. The paradox though, that can be very frustrating, is that our calling as Christians is to work toward that perfection anyway, to do all we we can to follow Christ’s teaching and life. And while striving for perfection is not wrong by any means, we need to temper our quest with the reality that the body of Christ, the church, is made up of human beings, God’s children, who are far from perfect, who sin in little and grand ways, who always find a way to mess things up.

The first two scriptures we heard this morning are examples of the earliest of church divisions and fights. The early Acts controversy was a matter of doctrine and belief – who could receive salvation and who couldn’t. Many of today’s church dissentions revolve around essentially the same subject. After coming together to debate the issue in the first Jerusalem Council, the apostles and elders made a decision toward inclusivity, making it easier for more Gentiles to come to the faith by not having them be circumcised and requiring the strict following of the Torah. While this was the consensus at that time, many were not happy with the decision and tension remained in many areas.

Then we have Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, which is really a long scolding for their failure to play nice together while also a plea for them to become “united in the same mind and judgment”. Paul isn’t asking for a cookie cutter, clone group to form that will all think exactly alike. The word translated as ‘united’ here in the Greek is used elsewhere in the New Testament with a basic meaning of: to thoroughly prepare something to meet demands; to put in order, restore to a former condition, mend, or repair. Paul realizes that this part of the body was wounded and in need of healing and for Paul, the only way to heal the body was to allow God in Christ to be the physician; for the lowliness and humility of the cross of Christ to be the power that repairs and restores.

Friends, that I believe is our hope too. We cannot heal ourselves, we cannot clean up our own messes, and we cannot keep ourselves from making new messes…but God can. As the Corinthian church refused to listen to one another and divided into factions over who was the better leader and who was more faithful to God, the concerned apostle realized that some of the greatest sins that were corrupting this group were idolatry and pride. They held ideas and people and opinions in higher esteem than God. They believed they alone had the inside track on what God really wanted. Even if they might have been able to hear a part of God’s will, their knowledge was worthless because it was lorded over those who thought differently or forced upon others. They had forgotten Micah’s call – do justice, love kindness and walk humble with your God. Can justice really be just without kindness and compassion to foster it? Can we be kind and walk humbly with God if we continually keep score about how ‘right’ we are and how ‘wrong’ everyone else is? And is humility really a character trait if we fail to continually to submit our wants and wishes and plans and dreams and desires to our Lord Jesus and to God’s will?

When we look at all the pain and suffering in the world, the division and factions within the church universal, it can seem overwhelming and frustrating. But friends, no one ever said that Christianity was the easy way. Yet, today in American is has become too easy for far too many. There are people who try to find their cozy niche and settle in for what they can get out of a church. They don’t want debate, they don’t want people who think differently, they don’t want tension or anxiety to muddy their tranquility…they want the perfect church. If that is all you want, I dare say you may be in the wrong place this morning. While it is something we are to pray for, something we are to work toward, it cannot and will not be a reality until our Lord returns to usher in the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. In the meantime, this is what we’ve got, this is the hand we’ve been dealt and our calling is to roll up our sleeves and get to work where we can.

I can honestly tell you that my time at the General Assembly left quite a mark on my heart and despite what I have said so far, it is not a negative mark by any means. It is, I think, a mark of reality. There is much to do in Christ’s name. And while we all are not called to solve all the problems and debates of this world, we are called to seek God’s will for our individual lives and for our combined witness as Christ’s body in this community. We each have been given distinct gifts and abilities, the most needed and critical of which is the gift of prayer and discernment, which are not easy endeavors.

When I look back upon the whole experience, I don’t think we could have had a better guiding scripture during the assembly than the Micah passage. We are called to do justice, but our passion and our zeal must always contain kindness toward all, great humility and a continued openness to God’s leading Spirit. It is OK to have strong opinions and fervor for what we think is right, but if those opinions and enthusiasm take a higher precedent than seeking if they are truly God’s will, they become idolatrous and hurtful.

I try to never say or suppose I know what God wants, that I am completely certain what God is thinking or doing or planning. To me, that is just audacious to assume. What tiny scrap of knowledge or understanding I do have comes not from my own abilities or research, but is instead a gift of God’s grace. Anything I am able to do, all that I have, all that I am has been entrusted to me by my Creator. All I can do is trust that God knows what God is doing, that God has a plan and that the more I pray and spend time with God, the more I will come to understand and the better I will be able to align my will with God’s.

I firmly believe that God’s will was done in San Jose. Did I like everything that happened? No. Did everything I wanted or hoped for happen? No. And it is because of the very fact that I answer ‘no’ to these questions that I believe God’s will was done for that time in that place in those circumstances. There was no way that any one of the 973 of us gathered together to discuss, to debate and ultimately to decide could have been happy with all 400 and sometime decisions made. Part of the difference between GA and any other old convention was that as a group we prayed together, we worshiped together and we sang together – before, during and after our sessions. The moderator introduced every vote with the following: “Sisters and brothers, sharing our common faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and walking humbly with our God, let us proceed to vote on the question before us.”

Before a possible contentious vote, there would be a call to spend an extra few moments in silent prayer. After a very close vote that was tied to much emotion we stood together and sang “Spirit of the Living God”. I guess what I want to get across to you the most is that nothing that came out of the assembly was done half-heartedly or without a lot of thought and prayer and tears. I think that is what made it so exhausting. I really tried to put my wants and opinions to the side and be open to God’s guidance.

I know God had to be there, moving among us when, throughout the 8 grueling days together, very few ever lost their cool, people played nice together, there was no heckling or name-calling and rarely was anger even slightly displayed. The place anger was most prevalent was outside the convention center when a group of protestors, supposedly speaking God’s word and will, shouted hateful, demeaning and vile statements at us when we left for meal breaks. The anger in their eyes was vivid and appalling. They stayed for a few days, but seemed to quickly dissipate after a group of our Youth Advisory Delegates silently walked up to them in the park one afternoon. These high school and college disciples, as they were being lambasted by insults, knelt together and prayed out loud for the protestors in that public park. Then they silently got up, and continued on their way to dinner. That act basically diffused the hate and we didn’t see much of them again.

Kindness, humility and love all anchored in guiding prayer are the keys to changing the church, changing our society, changing our world for the better. Keeping God as the main focus of our life and ministry, looking for God’s direction each and every step we take, being willing to listen to one another without prejudice, judgment or self-pride – these are the building blocks of the kingdom. They were the weapons our Lord Jesus Christ lovingly used to open us to the beginnings of kingdom life and they will be what will bring it to full fruition…in God’s time.

The Isaiah passage was the only one that was part of today’s lectionary. I chose it as the last reading on purpose and I want to reference it now as an anthem of hope for our future. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD… so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Friends, God will work through us when we will allow, but God can just as easily work around us and in spite of us if we insist. Too often our hardheadedness and inability to submit to God’s guidance cause stumbling blocks for ourselves and our brothers and sisters. Regardless, in the final say, God’s will and purpose and plan will work out. In that lies my hope, my confidence, my security and I trust it can be yours as well. However, it is still up to us to be the hands and feet that serve others and lead the world toward God’s reign. We must remember that God is not through with us, nor with God’s church. There is no perfect church, only her head and foundation, Christ Jesus, is perfect. Our calling is to be faithful and open to God’s will.

I want to close with a poem I found, whose author is unknown, but I think very wise.

If you should find the perfect church without fault or smear,
Please, don't join that church, you'd spoil the atmosphere.
If you should find the perfect church where all anxieties cease,
Then pass it by lest joining it you mar the masterpiece.
If you should find the perfect church, then don't you ever dare
To tread upon such holy ground you'd be a misfit there.
But since no perfect church exists...made of imperfect men,
Then let's cease looking for that church, and love the one we're in.
Of course it's not a perfect church, that's simple to discern,
But you and I and all of us could cause the tide to turn.
So let's keep working in our church until the resurrection,
And then we each will join God's church without an imperfection.
Amen.


SENDING OUT

Remember Friends:
That it is not we who chose Christ,
but Christ who chose us,
That we were not here because of our goodness
but because of Christ’s grace,
That we were not here to enlighten ourselves,
but to allow Christ to enlighten us,
That we do not go our separate ways alone,
but in the company of the Spirit
who has great things in store for us.

Grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you today and always.
Amen!