2 Corinthians 13:5-14
Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.
We don’t just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.
I’m writing this to you now so that when I come I won’t have to say another word on the subject. The authority the Master gave me is for putting people together, not taking them apart. I want to get on with it, and not have to spend time on reprimands.
And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.
The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.
Last week was Pentecost Sunday - and if it wasn’t the singular coming of the Holy Spirit once and for all – it was, at least, the arrival of the Spirit in the awareness of a particular group of people in that time and place – and it was an event that moved them to change the world. From that first Pentecost (in Christian terms) has grown all that we today call “the Church.”
It is Pentecost season, now – and since we did not get the property we were hoping to purchase, it feels like we have been sent back to the planning table – and it seems appropriate to look more deeply into just what the heck it is we think we mean when we talk about “being church.” It’s a big subject – too big for one week, so this week I’m going to talk – and next week I’m going to ask for your thoughts – and then we’ll go from there.
Church is one of those words that is so emotionally loaded...if there are eight of us having a conversation about ‘church’ we probably have eight (or ten...or twelve) different conversations happening – all the while thinking we’re all talking about the same thing.
So very many things go into making up that concept of ‘church’. (I’m going to ask a bunch of questions here - but they’re only rhetorical right now. Just listen. We’ll come back around to talk more about them later.) Let’s start with:
It is Pentecost season, now – and since we did not get the property we were hoping to purchase, it feels like we have been sent back to the planning table – and it seems appropriate to look more deeply into just what the heck it is we think we mean when we talk about “being church.” It’s a big subject – too big for one week, so this week I’m going to talk – and next week I’m going to ask for your thoughts – and then we’ll go from there.
Church is one of those words that is so emotionally loaded...if there are eight of us having a conversation about ‘church’ we probably have eight (or ten...or twelve) different conversations happening – all the while thinking we’re all talking about the same thing.
So very many things go into making up that concept of ‘church’. (I’m going to ask a bunch of questions here - but they’re only rhetorical right now. Just listen. We’ll come back around to talk more about them later.) Let’s start with:
• Are you a New Testament Christian or an Old Testament Christian? (I know, that last is an oxymoron, but a huge number of people who call themselves Christian are actually almost entirely formed by the rules and attitudes of the OT. They throw the name of Jesus around a lot but seem quite uninterested in what he actually has to say.)
• Do you embrace change or hate it? (This is a biggie here - and it needs to be answered honestly and if you do think you’re OK with change are you talking about little incremental changes or tear-the-old-edifice-down-and-build-it-up-again-from-scratch changes?)
• If you attended church as a child, was church a pleasant experience for you or was it something you suffered through because you were forced to go? Was church something you shared with people you loved or something you just endured?
• If church was a good experience for you when you were younger, are you always looking to recreate that same experience?
• Are you interested in learning and growing or just spending a quiet hour once a week with God?
• Is a traditional liturgy important to you? (Traditional hymns; formal repetitive prayers; a set pattern for worship; the leader up front doing all the talking and the people in their pews, or a living, shared exchange?)
Now, none of these things are necessarily right or wrong - they just are. (Well, except the OT Christians - that’s just weird.) These things are part of what forms each of us as church go-ers. And if we aren’t aware of our answers and where they come from we are in trouble as a congregation. These things form our expectations of what we are going to find when we get ourselves out of bed on Sunday morning and find our way to church.
• And there’s another question: Does it have to be Sunday morning to qualify as 'real' church?
In short, and again, this is rhetorical right now – are we going to be trying to recreate what we once had or are we going to be looking for something brand new?
My church experience as a child was varied - and that shows, I think, in my comfort with various kinds of church. I started in protestant churches, but when I walked for the first time into a Catholic Church I had found the home I would stay in for the next 30+ years – and, at the age of ten, it certainly wasn’t the theology that drew me in – it was the bells and whistles – the candles and statues and incense, the gold on the altar, the velvet and brocade vestments and all that went into a pre-Vatican II Catholic church. I still like the liturgical dressings, but they haven’t been the core of church for me for a long, long time. I have worshiped in as much beauty sitting in the sand at the seashore, with a plastic baggie of crackers and a mason jar of wine.
I sang in the choir from those early years and still love the ancient Latin chants echoing through the sanctuary, and Hilary and I were Music Ministers for many, many years, but today I prefer the simple sing-a-longs that everyone can join in, not just the good singers. If someday I could just get you all to clap along or even raise your hands in praise while you’re singing – just once! -- I could die happy (I’m not counting on that one, by the way.)
I started teaching CCD classes in church when I was twelve, so I guess I was cut and measured as a teacher right from the start. It’s still my favorite thing I do as pastor.
I’ve been a Secular Franciscan, a part of something that has existed unchanged for a thousand years - a tie I still cherish; and I’ve been a Pentecostal Catholic - singing and banging my tambourine as we danced through the church sanctuary. I have been involved on one level or another with social justice issues most of my life.
I tell you all this, not because I know you find my life just so doggone fascinating, but to illustrate that where we come from shapes our expectations of the future. I’ve been a lot of different kinds of Christian and made church in a lot of different ways – and felt (and still feel) that everyone of them was valid. God was present in every one of these incarnations of church. And so I’m not afraid of change - because I know wherever I end up, God is already there, waiting for me to catch up.
My point here, being, that every one of you has had your own journey. Right now, we are journeying together. But your experience is every bit as valid as mine – and your expectations are every bit as valid as mine – no more than anyone else’s, but valid. For us to grow as a living community – for us to become what God is shaping us to be – means that we must value each other – not just our own ideas, our own experience.
Our reading today was from St. Paul – from his second letter to the fledgling church in Corinth – where – as usual, they had been squabbling. The most important part of this reading to remember is that this is all post-Pentecost. Paul’s advice and his exhortation all come to a church already imbued with the Holy Spirit. He’s just reminding them to act like it.
We are a church gifted by the Holy Spirit. We are not in this alone. We just need to remember that...and count on it...and trust it. Moreover – and most importantly -- we need to hold to our awareness that whatever God calls us to, we CAN do it, with the Spirit of God working and be-ing within us.
Next week I’m going to ask your thoughts – but some specific thoughts. I don’t want your 5-year plan – and we’re not going to discuss or “grade” each other’s plans. What I want from you next week is your wildest hope for this church. If you were king of the world and could have it all your way – what would be your dream for this church? Next week.
My church experience as a child was varied - and that shows, I think, in my comfort with various kinds of church. I started in protestant churches, but when I walked for the first time into a Catholic Church I had found the home I would stay in for the next 30+ years – and, at the age of ten, it certainly wasn’t the theology that drew me in – it was the bells and whistles – the candles and statues and incense, the gold on the altar, the velvet and brocade vestments and all that went into a pre-Vatican II Catholic church. I still like the liturgical dressings, but they haven’t been the core of church for me for a long, long time. I have worshiped in as much beauty sitting in the sand at the seashore, with a plastic baggie of crackers and a mason jar of wine.
I sang in the choir from those early years and still love the ancient Latin chants echoing through the sanctuary, and Hilary and I were Music Ministers for many, many years, but today I prefer the simple sing-a-longs that everyone can join in, not just the good singers. If someday I could just get you all to clap along or even raise your hands in praise while you’re singing – just once! -- I could die happy (I’m not counting on that one, by the way.)
I started teaching CCD classes in church when I was twelve, so I guess I was cut and measured as a teacher right from the start. It’s still my favorite thing I do as pastor.
I’ve been a Secular Franciscan, a part of something that has existed unchanged for a thousand years - a tie I still cherish; and I’ve been a Pentecostal Catholic - singing and banging my tambourine as we danced through the church sanctuary. I have been involved on one level or another with social justice issues most of my life.
I tell you all this, not because I know you find my life just so doggone fascinating, but to illustrate that where we come from shapes our expectations of the future. I’ve been a lot of different kinds of Christian and made church in a lot of different ways – and felt (and still feel) that everyone of them was valid. God was present in every one of these incarnations of church. And so I’m not afraid of change - because I know wherever I end up, God is already there, waiting for me to catch up.
My point here, being, that every one of you has had your own journey. Right now, we are journeying together. But your experience is every bit as valid as mine – and your expectations are every bit as valid as mine – no more than anyone else’s, but valid. For us to grow as a living community – for us to become what God is shaping us to be – means that we must value each other – not just our own ideas, our own experience.
Our reading today was from St. Paul – from his second letter to the fledgling church in Corinth – where – as usual, they had been squabbling. The most important part of this reading to remember is that this is all post-Pentecost. Paul’s advice and his exhortation all come to a church already imbued with the Holy Spirit. He’s just reminding them to act like it.
We are a church gifted by the Holy Spirit. We are not in this alone. We just need to remember that...and count on it...and trust it. Moreover – and most importantly -- we need to hold to our awareness that whatever God calls us to, we CAN do it, with the Spirit of God working and be-ing within us.
Next week I’m going to ask your thoughts – but some specific thoughts. I don’t want your 5-year plan – and we’re not going to discuss or “grade” each other’s plans. What I want from you next week is your wildest hope for this church. If you were king of the world and could have it all your way – what would be your dream for this church? Next week.
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