Acts 6:1-7 NRSV
1Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
7The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
I wonder if John Myles ever tried to imgaine what the church would be like 350 years after he gathered with those 6 men others and their families.
I wonder if he could have imagined automobiles going 60 mph on Rt 6
…or planes high above on their way to Boston, New York, San Fransciso, London
I doubt that he could have imagined men on the space station, the internet or ipads
I’m sure no images like Lady GaGa came into his head
A democratic government instead of a King…well that was a hope from his past given the way the English civil war went.
I imagine that John and those earliest founders were just hopeful they could survive.
…that somehow they could gather and worship in the manner they were developing
…and last long enough to make their really reformed position socially, theologically and legally acceptable
John and his gathering tried to make a congregation that looked like what they saw in the scriptures
A community lead by apostolic men who were helped by several others
The elders (as John and the leading folks were known) were the group which differentiated themselves into several functions: preaching, teaching
and the administration of congregation
…that is the more mundance tasks like making sure the communion elelments were available when needed
taking care of the meeting house
Being supportive of the principle elder: the pastor, when he needed guidance and shared wisdom
John’s leadership took the English Baptist model and brought it to the colonies
Myles was to be in charge of the preaching/prophesying and the teaching (Oxford degree)
He had helpers, like John Butterworth, to help
But all the members had their roles
Everyone was to be gathered for worship each Lord’s day
When someone was proposed for membership, all voted
When young people were to be catechized, all families became teachers
When disputes roiled the congregation, all met for prayer and decision
Everyone in the congregation knew what their part was: from daily example of Gospel relationship to contributor to the upkeep of the ministry
And perhaps it was easier back then…we were the only church in town, there were no football games, malls to shop, activities to take the kids or long weekends to wind off the tension produced by the frenzy of post-modern life styles
This sermon begins a series on “Transformations and Transitions”
Transitions because the year we began yesterday in one of transition
We are moving from a full time pastoral model to a part time pastoral model
We want to preserve all necessary functions of the church and allow them to continue to be effective
Continue to be open to growth and successful programs of ministry, as we have done in the past decade
But to use our resources even more efficiently
What we were last year…and what we will be next year…will be imagined and designed and implemented in this year of transition
That will require transformation
Transformation is literally the change in form, shape, configuration across two points in time
For the church it means reassignment of functions, the reconfiguration of tasks, perhaps the order and timing of certain programs
Transformation is necessary because as conditions change about the church, the church must change…to adapt to the new conditions and to accommodate new challenges
Our scripture lesson tells us about the time in the life of the early church in which transformation allowed transition: Time of transition: growth,
The church has never sprung full formed from anyone’s imagination
The church in the first century and in the 17th century went through formative and fermenting times in which experiment, trial and error, replanning and reforming was the constant
It was generative process that was driven forward by the Holy Spirit, the creative presence and energy of God with us.
In Acts we see the whole community creating the structure of leadership as they needed to
Heretofore, work was all done by 12…and/or original disciples
All the work of going to the market places to preach and proselytize
All the work of organizing the worships and the distrubution of food to the widow and orphans
But now the work was too much
Here we see a creative Jerusalem church
[under James, the Lord’s brother…(to which Peter related and Paul returned to.)]
Here we see them change assignments to increase their function
The practical question “Who does what work?”
Necessitated by more complex need: serving two growing parts of community (Jews who were probably first to follow Jesus and the Greek speakers who couldn’t resist the Gospel message)
The community needed better administration:
So at the suggestion of their apostolic leaders, they transformed the church
Prayer and serving the word: the 12, the primary disciples
These functions included the public preaching, evangelism, being about in the wider community and teaching both from their memories of Jesus and from the OT
Serving the tables: deacons (diakonos- helpers)
These were chosen from the body of disciples
They were chosen for their gifts and their commitment to the ministry of the community
But the Community of disciples was the whole group
All those learning the Jesus way
Their lives changed by the preaching and teaching of those who had known Jesus closest (12)
It was this whole group who made the decision together about how to transform itself to transition into a more effective future
It was the community, the body of Christ, the ecclessia, that knew it must create new forms when necessity requires!
It took the resources of faithful, Spirit empowered people and assigned them the most necessary tasks
It celebrated them as the body commissioned them with prayer and hands
The church used that model effectively for a long while
And Baptists reclaimed the model of Diakonos and Episcopos: helpers and overseers until ~1900 when more complex organizations began to be required to do missions (mission committees), and create larger Sunday Schools (Boards of Education) and respond to the requirements of the government (trustees)
This reformation applies to us
The elder/deacon model is what John Myles used
The elder/deacon model is really how we manage ourselves (with some tweaking to “finance” helpers, property helpers and teaching helpers)
But the Deacons remain the central board in our congregation above whom only the congregation has greater authority
So the leaders, elders of our church in the past 5 years have been looking forward to the transition that we now are beginning
…with the firm belief that in times when particular needs arise, we can modify what we do
And if we are clever, we will be able to maintain the functions or even make more efficient and effective the functions we employ.
Today we begin our Future (as we do every day!):
It is important to think thelogically about what we are doing
That we need, like the church described in Acts, faithful folks, full of the Holy Spirit, is obvious
We need people to be about their own prayer life as an even deeper well of Spiritual power
For the challenges of the church today are significant and maybe even overwhelming
So we need increased responsibility on boards and committees to take leadership initiatives when appropriate
We need to maintain effective communications, so all parts know their part
We will need to develop some new ways of doing some old things:
Pastoral leadership will not either dominate nor fade away
But will become a part of a broader conversation amongst the leaders of the church
God is with us…as we have just celebrated the Advent of Jesus, his birth and the meaning of it to us
We know that the wilderness is loud around us
But we know that the gathering of the faithful has survived many transitions, performed many transformations over nearly 350 years.
Each of us must step up now and declare
“for my part as member, I bring my faith and the GodSpirit” to the decisions which must be made, to the support which must be given
“for my part as board member/committee person, I bring my faith and God’s leading spirit” to the practical matters of designing and implementing our ministry
“for my part as pastor, I bring my faith and Spiritual imagination to future of this congregation, to the inspiration and equipping of the whole community.
Jan. 9 "There is Freedom"
2 Corinthians 3:12-18
12Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. 15Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
Did you ever go to a closet in your house (or a basement or attic) look at all the stuff that has accumulated and said to your self
“NOW…I’m going to do it now”
Then in that moment of energy, clean it out, chucked out the stuff you haven’t used in 20 years
And finally stood saying “It looks so much better now”
[ I really haven’t…ask Beverly about our basement.]
But such a moment is a moment of liberation
And while cleaning a closet or basement isn’t the greatest revolution in the world it is a transition
…and a transformation
It is a time when things got unstuck and rearranged
We are looking for such moments this year!
…moments when we realize what we have done or how we have done things in the past, simply are inadequate for the future
…and in a moment of heady freedom, changed something
read a new book
drove to work a different way
talked to a new person at lunch
bought that wild outfit/thing that you wanted since you were a kid
acquire a new creative skill at cooking, or writing or administrating or ____________ (you fill in the blank…)
The freedom that Paul is talking about in our lesson this morning is not particularly a political freedom
It is a moment of spiritual liberation, when Godspirit and our human spirit collide in a creative crash
…and the old is discarded and left behind,
while the new is discovered, unfolding into the future
Now the church, as an institution, is probably the most conservative institution that we participate in
It is built upon the foundation of Tradition
The things of the past, powerful and dynamic, have been the focus of our attention…our history, our scriptures, our comfortable customs…all form that which is well known and familiar
The church would not be the church if we lost that which was meaningful in the past (this is why it is so hard to change!)
But as we study church history, we know that the church, has takent the radical things of its past and turned them into a radical future
The church has, at moments, reformed itself, renewed its operations and refounded itself on those underpinnings which are eternal
One of the greatest transitions, transformations, in human history has been the emergence of Christianity out of Judaism (= or // to Buddhist out of Hindu, Moslem out of Abrahamic Tradition)
Within such a transition language is given new meaning
Messiah is no longer a military office
Messiah is a gentler, kinder, more compassionate ruler…
New patterns of human relationships arise
We not only love our friends and families
We love our enemies
There are no priests, we are all intermediaries between the human and the divine
In moments of release from the past, a sense of liberty and hope emboldens us to make intellectual and structural changes in our lives
New information, new science, adds to our understanding of how people and things work
New technologies offer different ways to work
When we find these liberating moments, we begin to live in an empowered time which results in series of events that begin to significantly alter our “life styles”
We change persistent patterns
We experience new ideas, people
We find new energies to relate to each other at deeper more profound levels of love
As we begin this year, we ponder the future of our congregation…
We have been able in the past to adapt to every challenge
We moved from infant baptism to adult
We moved from discourse at “meetings” and lectures on Thursdays to one worship on Sundays
We moved from home based catechesis to Church school
We moved from singing Psalm to singing anthems and prayer songs
We moved from one or two deacons to a board of Deacons
Somehow hidden in our past was a sense of liberation that worked in every moment challenge
Each time the congregation felt a blockage this sense of God’s spirit, of God’s grace manifested itself in a moment of “unstuckness”
Crises are (are to family and organizational theory) a time of unstuckness
Jesus knew that
His questions to people who approached him generally created a moment of decisioin for them
They could stay in their past…or move to God’s future
Paul knew that
The old law, the law of Moses that he had studied so long and so hard…was no longer adequate
The image of Jesus appearing as the church was the new thing that was breaking forth, being revealed
But the ones for whom the old ways were better, safer…
were left behind…in the old ways
the new Christians entered a time of ferment and conflict and spiritual creativity
They had no organizational plan, just the model of the one whose name they took: the Christ
And they let Godspirit shape them into a world changing, transformative power
2011 lies before us…
It is easy to cite the need for transformation
Challenges of budget, building maintenance, sufficient programs for ministry
We know that while we think the church is strong, vital and healthy (according to our past values) we also know that it is not growing
We are not attracting new people at a rate to compensate for the erosion of the organization…!
It is fairly easy to design a response
From our theories and experience
We can think now we know everything about being the church
But in an age in which change happens faster than we can recognize it, in a technological time when machines even change the way we think…
The image of the church of the future may not yet have emerged
So we then come to the indisputable fact, that it is fairly difficult to actually change
(hence the frictions in the church at Corinth!
Or the huge upheavals of the Reformation…or the culture wars in our own times)
We come hence, to our current situation of “closer parameters” (fewer pastoral hours, more laity inititation…how do we do education for our older youth?)
The basic question:
How do we transform ourselves into congregation that continues to give witness to/become the image of Jesus Christ in the 21st century
What is the “mindset” that we need? How free can we be?
My theory
It is in the most challenging of times that we should be the freest to be creative…to bring about healthy change
And we can be closer to, more empowered by Godspirit…
Structure and operations
Revisioning? A whole new ‘whole’?
A present sense of opening
Three moments of creative freedom
One is the blank sheet problem
The other is the the long term, relentless need to be creative…the problem of success…
…and then there are crises…and we are in critical mode
Is there a better way to “do” church?
These dynamics of change work in our personal lives
…and in our congregations
Mega churches do satellite worships at store fronts and movie theaters, some churches meet in homes
What if we went totally electronic: e-church we all do a log and blog between 10 & 11 am each Sunday.
What if we met on Wednesday nights instead of Sunday mornings?
What if we had 5 house churches meeting at five times in five places
Another way of assessing what must be a part of our future is asking
What would we miss if it were left out?
How much can we change without dislodging the old folks to accommodate the new folks?
…or becoming “not a church”?
Our future will be/is determined by our sense of freedom and our ability to discern God’s revealing of the image into which we are being transformed…
what does Jesus look like in the 21st century?
His community?
Somehow, I think our future is something like the problem of the closet full of old stuff, unused, long gone from consciousness…
…we are weighed down by the past…
Our future will emerge from a moment when we go to the old place, led by Godspirit and start sorting through
And discover, as we stand, staring at the dusty stuff…
There is freedom!
Not only to discard what is unnecessary…but also to make room for or create what will be useful in the years to come!
January 9, 2011
"There is Freedom"
2 Corinthians 3:12-18
Did you ever go to a closet in your house (or a basement or attic) look at all the stuff that has accumulated and said to your self
“NOW…I’m going to do it now”
Then in that moment of energy, clean it out, chucked out the stuff you haven’t used in 20 years
And finally stood saying “It looks so much better now”
[ I really haven’t…ask Beverly about our basement.]
But such a moment is a moment of liberation
And while cleaning a closet or basement isn’t the greatest revolution in the world it is a transition
…and a transformation
It is a time when things got unstuck and rearranged
We are looking for such moments this year!
…moments when we realize what we have done or how we have done things in the past, simply are inadequate for the future
…and in a moment of heady freedom, changed something
read a new book
drove to work a different way
talked to a new person at lunch
bought that wild outfit/thing that you wanted since you were a kid
acquire a new creative skill at cooking, or writing or administrating or ____________ (you fill in the blank…)
The freedom that Paul is talking about in our lesson this morning is not particularly a political freedom
It is a moment of spiritual liberation, when Godspirit and our human spirit collide in a creative crash
…and the old is discarded and left behind,
while the new is discovered, unfolding into the future
Now the church, as an institution, is probably the most conservative institution that we participate in
It is built upon the foundation of Tradition
The things of the past, powerful and dynamic, have been the focus of our attention…our history, our scriptures, our comfortable customs…all form that which is well known and familiar
The church would not be the church if we lost that which was meaningful in the past (this is why it is so hard to change!)
But as we study church history, we know that the church, has takent the radical things of its past and turned them into a radical future
The church has, at moments, reformed itself, renewed its operations and refounded itself on those underpinnings which are eternal
One of the greatest transitions, transformations, in human history has been the emergence of Christianity out of Judaism (= or // to Buddhist out of Hindu, Moslem out of Abrahamic Tradition)
Within such a transition language is given new meaning
Messiah is no longer a military office
Messiah is a gentler, kinder, more compassionate ruler…
New patterns of human relationships arise
We not only love our friends and families
We love our enemies
There are no priests, we are all intermediaries between the human and the divine
In moments of release from the past, a sense of liberty and hope emboldens us to make intellectual and structural changes in our lives
New information, new science, adds to our understanding of how people and things work
New technologies offer different ways to work
When we find these liberating moments, we begin to live in an empowered time which results in series of events that begin to significantly alter our “life styles”
We change persistent patterns
We experience new ideas, people
We find new energies to relate to each other at deeper more profound levels of love
As we begin this year, we ponder the future of our congregation…
We have been able in the past to adapt to every challenge
We moved from infant baptism to adult
We moved from discourse at “meetings” and lectures on Thursdays to one worship on Sundays
We moved from home based catechesis to Church school
We moved from singing Psalm to singing anthems and prayer songs
We moved from one or two deacons to a board of Deacons
Somehow hidden in our past was a sense of liberation that worked in every moment challenge
Each time the congregation felt a blockage this sense of God’s spirit, of God’s grace manifested itself in a moment of “unstuckness”
Crises are (are to family and organizational theory) a time of unstuckness
Jesus knew that
His questions to people who approached him generally created a moment of decisioin for them
They could stay in their past…or move to God’s future
Paul knew that
The old law, the law of Moses that he had studied so long and so hard…was no longer adequate
The image of Jesus appearing as the church was the new thing that was breaking forth, being revealed
But the ones for whom the old ways were better, safer…
were left behind…in the old ways
the new Christians entered a time of ferment and conflict and spiritual creativity
They had no organizational plan, just the model of the one whose name they took: the Christ
And they let Godspirit shape them into a world changing, transformative power
2011 lies before us…
It is easy to cite the need for transformation
Challenges of budget, building maintenance, sufficient programs for ministry
We know that while we think the church is strong, vital and healthy (according to our past values) we also know that it is not growing
We are not attracting new people at a rate to compensate for the erosion of the organization…!
It is fairly easy to design a response
From our theories and experience
We can think now we know everything about being the church
But in an age in which change happens faster than we can recognize it, in a technological time when machines even change the way we think…
The image of the church of the future may not yet have emerged
So we then come to the indisputable fact, that it is fairly difficult to actually change
(hence the frictions in the church at Corinth!
Or the huge upheavals of the Reformation…or the culture wars in our own times)
We come hence, to our current situation of “closer parameters” (fewer pastoral hours, more laity inititation…how do we do education for our older youth?)
The basic question:
How do we transform ourselves into congregation that continues to give witness to/become the image of Jesus Christ in the 21st century
What is the “mindset” that we need? How free can we be?
My theory
It is in the most challenging of times that we should be the freest to be creative…to bring about healthy change
And we can be closer to, more empowered by Godspirit…
Structure and operations
Revisioning? A whole new ‘whole’?
A present sense of opening
Three moments of creative freedom
One is the blank sheet problem
The other is the the long term, relentless need to be creative…the problem of success…
…and then there are crises…and we are in critical mode
Is there a better way to “do” church?
These dynamics of change work in our personal lives
…and in our congregations
Mega churches do satellite worships at store fronts and movie theaters, some churches meet in homes
What if we went totally electronic: e-church we all do a log and blog between 10 & 11 am each Sunday.
What if we met on Wednesday nights instead of Sunday mornings?
What if we had 5 house churches meeting at five times in five places
Another way of assessing what must be a part of our future is asking
What would we miss if it were left out?
How much can we change without dislodging the old folks to accommodate the new folks?
…or becoming “not a church”?
Our future will be/is determined by our sense of freedom and our ability to discern God’s revealing of the image into which we are being transformed…
what does Jesus look like in the 21st century?
His community?
Somehow, I think our future is something like the problem of the closet full of old stuff, unused, long gone from consciousness…
…we are weighed down by the past…
Our future will emerge from a moment when we go to the old place, led by Godspirit and start sorting through
And discover, as we stand, staring at the dusty stuff…
There is freedom!
Not only to discard what is unnecessary…but also to make room for or create what will be useful in the years to come!
January 16, 2011
"Be Transformed"
Romans 12:1-8
What was Paul trying to do to those new Christians in Rome?
His clear message: Transformation => “Be transformed”
Paul knew Xnty is all about change
It was about personal change and cultural change
It was about how we see the world and how we respond to the world around us
Always was always will be
…but never about conformity…
Is Paul’s message still clear to us?
Paul was dealing with a simpler world…yet rich in complexities
Those early believers there in Rome came from diverse backgrounds
Some had believed in Roman Gods and had worshipped in various temples
Some came from Jewish backgrounds, pious and law abiding
Some I’m sure were not very religious/pious; others extraordinarily pious
And all of them had been changed in mind and behavior when they heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ
So why was Paul still pushing “transformation” after they all were converted?
It is hard for us to see into the future…!
It is no easier for us to see what the church will be in 100 years, than it was for Paul to see the Romans accepting, even making official the Xn faith
It is no easier for us to see what the church will be in 10 years than it was for Augustine to see the need need for Reformation with Calvin and Luther…
It is no easier for us to see the end of this year, than it was John Myles to anticipate TABCOM
What will the church look like in the future?
Will we still meet on Sunday?
Will we go back to renting pews?
Will we all stay home and worship with some version of Skype?
Will we have a pastor? Or a team of ministers…all volunteer?
Will there even be an organized church? […if trends keep going the way they are…]
Several years ago, I tried writing a description of the future church
I think I saw it as a buildingless community of folks meeting in their homes
One seminary/university educated “pastor/teacher” relating to 5-10 home groups [to assure the connection with the Tradition]
Each home group taking on a mission project along with the worship and caring functions
Somewhat vague an image…
But I realize now…it was a vision made up of images that were already familiar
The future as I saw it in the past…was a re-configuration of the familiar
Can anyone here help describe our congregation in 50 years?
I guess that is why I keep coming back to this passage, it is so radical and so seminal!
The renewing of your Mind =?
What is your mind?
Intellect, imagination, emotions, intuition…
It is both conscious and subconscious
How do you change a mind?
Clasic:
Education/Training
Trauma/crisis
Reflection…meditation
Travel
Age
Creative?
How do you do radical Re-imagining?
One way is through “Ecstasis”
An experience that allows us to “stand outside”
A mystical moment of trans-reasonable insight, inspired and influence from beyond
This sort of experience comes directly from God…
…kinda like when you first meet Jesus
right?
But we have a double problem when it comes to transformation
Our situation is a little different than Paul’s
We need to be about, not only changing our selves…
…but (unlike the early Xns who were inventing the church) we have to transform the organization/community/institution …
So we are charged with two tasks
Renewing our minds…thinking differently, using new vocabulary, seeing new images for us, forming new relationships
AND changing the organizational form of our congregation to be more sustainable
And a situational problem…the world is changing around us so fast that it’s a blur…
Unlike the Roman world, where change came slowly, The Pax Romana a 200 year period of stability, we live in a world that has a technological generation replaced every 18 months!
Paul’s advice now would be paradoxical…Don’t conform to blinding change…
What does that do to humans?
Confuses, confounds, discourages
Most of all: CHALLENGES
Paul’s issues
Roman culture:
a culture of ease for most!
Even Jews were given a lot of leeway
Polytheistic: menu of religious options, all of which were good as long as Emporer worship was on the list
Synchretistic: ideas and practices from Eastern religions like Zorastrianism and Mithraism, Greek philosophy all flowed together into a sometimes indistinguishable stew
The culture was male dominated, females were to have and teach children, children were disposable, slavery was accepted and sexual mores were…(we’ll leave that to another day’s research!)
Paul put the question before the Roman church: What were Xns supposed to do differently?
Our issues:
We now live in a “post modern,” post-Christian era!
Post-modern in the sense that old mythologies get deconstructed and reconfigured into more acceptable chunks
Where history is rewritten or disconnected from our consciousness
Science scrapes away human intuition and feelings to reduce things to component parts and mechanistic operations
Mystery and marvel are lost in analysis
Post-Christian in the sense that Christianity is no longer dominant even in Western European culture
The church is in decline and 80% of folks in our country (greater in Europe!) no longer feel it is necessary to participate
We live in a consumer society which has a value on things greater than on relationships or abstractions like Justice
The balance has swung to the individual over the group, the person over the institution and “voices of authority” are so many that no voice is authoritative
Certainly we do not want to conform to what we see around us!
…for to do so would end the church for ever
Be Transformed?
Paul tells us to renew our minds!
And we want to because we know that
Transformation as adaptability to the new conditions in which the church exists
Transformation is sustainability…to conintue this fellowship which brings us human love undergirded by Divine love
Transformation is survival…certainly of our venerable congregation, maybe even the church in its entirety!
What should Xns do now?
First we must really understand that how we think and act now…
are inadequate
We can not simply take what has been, rearrange it and hope that it will produce a “new golden era” of influence and effectiveness for the institution of Christian faith
Second we must really understand our past (this may sound a bit contradictory)
A radical understanding of the past should be the foundation of the future
Because a clear image of the church as it was empowered by the “resurrection experience” was the original transformative ecstasis
When folks first met Jesus, were first engaged in understanding how different he was from all the other religious voices
…then they were transformed, their minds renewed and spirits soared
We need to regain our intitial zeal and belief as Jesus becomes a constant companion in our decision making
Third we need to apply Occum’s razor
We should let the burden of any unnecessary organizational dross be eliminated by critical analysis: keep only what works to implement faith
We should ask ourselves pointed questions about everything that is now familiar: do we need a building? Do we need a pastor? Do we need deacons? Do we need a church school?
Finally, as we renew our minds, we seek inspiration, influence from the transcendent God whom we trust
We will need to re-imagine our beliefs (the content of faith), how they motivate us to behave within the world around us
We will need to reprioritize our relationships: is church more or less important than job or government? [those early Xns that were given to the lions certainly thought so!]
We will need new words, more attractive and persuasive words, to explain why we are still meeting and talking about Jesus!
For in our post-Christian world, Jesus as person and as God has been deconstructed and relativised!
Can we convince anyone now that Jesus is a transformative figure in our lives?…in our political or technological culture?
Being transformed is a lot easier to say/preach than to do!
If it were easy, we would have already done it
But the hopeful, transformative thing is…we do try
We put our issues on the table, we ponder them, we talk about them and then with a little change here and a larger change there, we begin to transform
Our congregation
Ourselves
And the world about us
Hearing Paul’s admonition: “Be Transformed” was probably no easier then, than it is now
The key to our transformation: Keep hearing the message
For in hearing it, really hearing it, deep down where decisions are made, we are Being transformed!
January 23, 2011
"Strange Things"
Luke 5:17-26
Standing up…
Its so simple…we do it, most of us do it…without thinking
This week: standing up made national news…
Arizona congress woman…Gabrielle Giffords
miraculous!?
Standing up is a pretty standard thing to do …unless
Your are very young baby!
You are sick or injured…
…or are very elderly
Then standing up is AN EVENT!
The story we have just read in Luke’s gospel was AN EVENT!
It is as story that is rich in detail
and challenging for modern listeners to hear
For while it is certainly an optimistic story and encouraging for all of us…there are strange elements that need to be noted
…if we are to allow this story to be motivating for us today!
Elements in the details of the narrative
Jesus was teaching…but with him was the power (dynimis) of the Lord (kyrios) to heal (Jesus and God differentiated?!)
There was a paralyzed man…
who had some pretty decent friends,
who struggled to get him close the healing power!
Jesus responded to the faith of the friends by healing the paralytic!
Jesus “read” the thoughts of the Pharisees and scribes…confronted their lack of faith…their questioning doubts
Jesus knew that to be truly understood, he had to establish his authority (exousia)
not simply by getting people to agree
but by demonstrating dramatically, visibly the consequence of faithful action
And lastly, all of the witnesses in this story experienced “amazement”
“ekstasis” is the greet word…to be displaced from normal mind into extraordinary mindfulness!
The result is “awe” better understood as “fear” “phobos,” not just being scared or anxious…but that deep and transformative “fear of God”, the result of an encounter with the transcendent
Certainly the central image here is that of Paralysis!!
In the story it is a physical paralysis
For in Jesus time, physical malady was understood as a spiritual condition
and the paralyzed man’s need was for spiritual healing: forgiveness!
So if we can bring forward the meaning of this story to our own situation we can say fairly accurately that we are dealing with Spiritual paralysis
A condition when mind and body are ineffective and non productive
When relationships are non-functioning
And nothing happens…
We’ve all had such times…
So if we are to apply this to our own moment
…we have to ask ourselves…are we spiritually paralyzed?
And to answer this we have to look deeper into the story
Teaching and healing
The poor man’s friends had faith
And when I say here, faith, I mean they had a deep and motivating trust that in this Jesus, transformation was possible for their paralyzed friend
They so believed it, that they went to extraordinary measures to bet him close to the power source
They carried and lowered the victim down into the center of the crowd, right on Jesus lap
Jesus responded to their faith…not the victims
They had already been released from any paralysis that kept them from being inactive and ineffective!
Their faith tries ours…do we identify with them?
Do we drag our friends to Jesus for transformation?
The questions of the critics
Here we get into some “political” paralysis
The Pharisees and scribes held earthly authority; their power was in the old institutions
They thought there was nothing of God in Jesus
They could not imagine that God was with them in the person of the teacher/healer…so they scoffed
Today there are many many critics of the church who might say…there is no transcendent healing power in that decaying, declining insitution…they remain in the paralysis of past understandings…
Jesus knew that to clue them in, a clear and visible demonstration had to be made…so the man with faithful friends walked home in celebration!
Amazement
Ecstasy
…standing outside the normal…the experience of strange…the displacement from the easily understood regular and ordinary…
to the confrontation with the eternal transcendent power to transform,
to change utterly through the fearful apprehension of the mysterious and existentially frightening
If there is one thing that the early church had going for it that the contemporary church seems to have lost…it is this ability to be strange…
We live in a scientifically grounded and therefore skeptical society
We are normal…because we have been this way for so long we can’t remember being any other way
What would it take…to amaze the people of Swansea, Somerset or Seekonk?
Let me suggest something…
Let me suggest that as we read this old story again…
And as we ponder how our congregation can not only survive but be influential again within our communities and nation, we should identify with the friends
We need to be about the kind of faith that drags people to the source of healing and transformation
…but it may be the case that for such faith to be so demonstrated, we have to for a moment, identify with the paralysis of the poor man who had such good friends…
We need to make sure that there is nothing that immobilizes us…no sin that needs forgiveness…no illness of mind, body or spirit that so dominates our behavior that we can’t walk away singing hymns!
And if…if…we find within ourselves such impediments, we hope that our friends drag us over to Jesus for some powerful teaching and healing
The future of the church, not only of our congregation but also of the the whole body of Christ, I think, is dependent on how strange we can be,
That is how much of the shekinah of God we can reflect
How much of the transcendent power of Jesus’ teaching we can direct
How much of Jesus healing we can inflect…
So that we become not normal, but strange, not comfortably familiar but disturbingly unusual
We have to be tranformed ourselves into just simply an AMAZING EVENT of people and power that moves beyond our one hour of worship and out into the middle of the crowds where we do something that others scratch their heads at…and get overwhelmed with phobos, the fear of God
So to get there, to make the transition to our future, we travel back to the old days, and we have to ask those ancient friends…
Why did you so love your friend?
Why did you so trust Jesus?
Did you know you were going to unleash some strange things?
January 30, 2011 Sermon Dialogue
Background:
Context::.Luke is here describing events that happened early in the development of the church. One dynamic is the outward expansion of the faith because of persecution as the differences between followers of Jesus and the Jews are more clearly perceived.
“Christian” was at first most likely a term of derision. Hellenists refered to those of Greek culture. “Lord Jesus” is a term that would denote obedience to and recognition of Jesus’ divinity. Barnabas was one of “the 12” and opening the way for Saul to become a leader.
Jerusalem was one of the two original communities. Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria. It was an influential early center of Christianity. Phoenicia is the country just above Judea, Cyprus is an eastern Mediterranean island
The text: Acts 11:19-26 (NRSV)
19Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. 20But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. 21The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. 22News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; 24for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. 25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”
The points for reflection…
Responses to the text, questions, feelings, words/images
Why were those who knew Stephen reluctant to speak to people beyond the Jewish community?
What do we see the early Christians doing in this passage?
What role did the community at Jerusalem play in the mission? How did they help create “standards” by which people became Christian?
What seemed to be motivating the growth of the church?
What words are used in this passage to describe Christians?
Why was “Christian” a possible term of derision then? …now?
Is this a good “picture” of the church’s mission, of its behavior at the boundaries of its influence?? Can we use this “picture” to design a modern missionary effort?
Which is more important: conversion or nurture?
Comment: from Willimon
If it is really true that the church is a counter-cultural phenomenon, that the truth of Christ comes to us from without, that being a Christian is against our natural inclination, then the church ingnores the teaching office on peril of losing its soul. Nurture is not the opposite of conversion but a part of conversion, and nurture will characterize a church dternimed to equip its members to withstand the corrosive acids of a culture that does not know Christ.”
Can we talk about “transformation” without addressing the key issues of conversion and nurture?
How is the word “Christian” used now outside the church?
Identify three things that “non-church goers” may think about Chrisitans? …three ways you would like to be described?
Can you describe your moment of “conversion”? Are you receiving enough “nurture” now to sustain your faith?
What must we do now to “transform” our congregation into a growing, dynamic community of faith as we transition into our future? Are there clues for us in this passage?