Day 195 - On the Road Again

A sermon delivered Sunday June 23, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy-Daisy, TN

subtitle: Once you open a can of worms, it always takes a bigger can to put them all back.

references: Ezekiel 44:5-9; Acts 10:44- 11:18

While I was thinking about the experience of Peter and Cornelius (see Acts 14:1-43), I came across an e-mail from a group that sends out reflections on religious issues and the church in general (Church of the Savior, Washington, DC "Inward/Outward"June 22 issue). This particular reflection claims that we tend to make the church and spiritual life much more complicated today than Jesus said.

We have developed procedures, creeds, interpretations and rules that protect and define membership in the institutions of our churches beginning with these experiences in Acts.  Unlike them, we tend to think we live in the world and attend church, when in fact we should be living in the church and attending the world because we know from Acts that the Apostles and Paul did not found “Churches,” they nurtured communities of Christian believers.

How do we decide someone is a Christian? Let’s look at the story of Peter and how Cornelius’ conversion came about to see what I mean. Cornelius was a gentile Roman soldier, one of the occupiers but he was a religious person who prayed constantly to God.

Peter had a dream in which a divine visitation challenged two of his more deeply held Jewish religious beliefs, the rules concerning eating “unclean” food and priests associating with non-Jews.  Not only did he have this dream, he also claimed that when three men met him the Holy Spirit told him to go with them and treat them as if they were one of his Jewish Christian brothers.

When Peter got to Cornelius’ house where the men wanted him to go, he realizes Cornelius is a gentile and tells him he will talk to him because his dream told him to, even though it is unlawful to talk to a gentile. Cornelius proceeds to tell Peter about his dream that a man in dazzling white clothes told him to send men to find Peter.

With his own dream in mind Peter reluctantly shares the Gospel with Cornelius. He tells Cornelius, (Acts10:34-35): “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, and in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” As Peter begins to explain the Good News the Holy Spirit overcomes Cornelius and friends, and they begin speaking in tongues and praising God.  Peter can only say, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

Peter’s religious belief that gentiles are unclean must come from Ezekiel 44:6-9 and the rabbinic interpretations that developed. Ezekiel said it was an abomination that profaned God’s sanctuary to admit uncircumcised foreigners who were not converted Jews into his sanctuary.  You have to look hard to find a prohibition like this; it is a major deviation from the fair and compassionate care for aliens and foreigners called for in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Ezekiel objects that the priests have let gentiles into the temple as quasi-priests. Peter had to let go of his deeply held religious belief to baptize Cornelius and accept him in the congregation of the faithful.

As momentous as this is, another very important character of conversion itself bears on this subject.

Notice in the passage I read that the Holy Spirit, or God if you will, is the main actor. The Holy Spirit instructs them as to what to do while Peter and Cornelius are passive actors. Peter is told to eat the food gentiles eat though he resists three times. He meets three men and is told to follow them and does. Cornelius has a dream also and is told to send people to find Peter at a certain location and bring him back, which he does. Peter and Cornelius are almost “one-dimensional.” The “star” in this drama is the Holy Spirit. It seizes and converts Cornelius and friends while Peter explains the Gospel. And then. poor Peter must travel back to Jerusalem and justify his actions that the Holy Spirit was at work to some angry Apostles - in spite of their objections.

There is something very important, difficult and contradictory about these conversions happening as a consequence of violating religious purity laws.

As we know, proclamation, the Holy Spirit and personal affirmation are essential for conversion.  The power of the Holy Spirit looms large in the conversion of Cornelius and the Ethiopian met by Philip. The Holy Spirit called them to Christian service. They had a willingness to hear, but the Holy sprit did all the work.

Look at what happened with the Ethiopian who was the queen’s treasurer.  The Holy Spirit told Philip to travel down a desolate desert road. When he met this Ethiopian officer of the Queen’s court, the Holy Spirit told Philip to approach the Ethiopian and interpret Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading. Philip explained how Isaiah foretells the Gospel and connected it to the Good News.  Then the Ethiopian sees a body of water stops his chariot and asked Philip, “why not baptize me here?” and Philip did. 

This isn’t a special one-time event. The same thing happened with Saul on the road to Damascus. He had no receptivity to conversion, only a persecuting intent. Jesus appears in a bright light that blinds Saul, tells Saul to go to a certain place and stay and he is healed.  Saul (Paul) says hardly a word.

The unity in these conversions is the action of the Lord who calls the disciples to the people and brings to faith the people who listened. It was all the Holy Spirit’s work. We see conversion is a very personal experience of the external force of the Holy Spirit. Never convince yourself you willfully embraced conversion by your self. Jesus did it all. The only thing Paul, the Ethiopian and Cornelius did on their own was participate publically affirm their faith by being baptized.

The contradiction is that Christianity is a very communal experience. It posed difficulty for the Apostles in Jerusalem who thought they were the gatekeepers to decide if a conversion was true, but what basis do they have to do so? None of the Apostles or any of us today have a way to look into a person’s heart and judge that they believe other than observing and supporting the willingness of the converts to participate in the life of the congregation.

Scripture says the only ticket to salvation is to be called to join the congregation and its activity in the world as our new life. This is what living in the church and attending to the world means.

The irony is that over the last 2,000 years we have built up rules, procedures, processes, practices and creeds originally meant to teach the faith to new believers but they have become litmus tests or a gates to membership in the congregational life.

Now, do not get me wrong, every creed of the church is a faithful attempt to interpret scripture in the context of the current world. The Apostle’s Creed seeks to capture the essential tenet of faith - Jesus’ only criterion for salvation of the Christian, “I am the way, the truth and the light, no one comes to the Father except through me,” and “He that believes in me shall not perish but have everlasting life.” But Emperor Constantine ordered it revised (Nicene Creed) to solve a controversy by affirming the means of his birth, his crucifixion and the nature of the Trinity.  Its formal statement of the Trinity was ordered to stop the destructive arguments between bishops of the congregations of the Eastern and Western Christian congregations.

We have Scriptural basis in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that tells of Jesus’ birth, but in each Gospel Jesus states the only criterion for salvation is faith in our resurrection through the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God.

Slowly we add requirements, interpretations, duties and tasks in our Christian congregational and denominational practice, almost always for the noble and constructive defense of the faith, like Peter and the Apostles. In politics and war we call this expansion “mission creep.” These additions slowly take on a life as requirements and we begin thinking about our Christianity in terms of our rules and creeds. They define a denominationalism, not Christianity and lose the freedom of the Spirit in Christ’s words quoted from the John’s Gospel. Why do we do this?

We do it for same good reasons the Apostles in Jerusalem did. We want to be sure the people whom we welcome into our congregation as believers have a good sense of that belief. At the same time we have to admit defeat because we cannot peer into a person’s heart to measure one’s faith and understanding. We can only rely on their participation in our fellowship and let God be the judge. If the person is a Christian, God has sent the person to us as his vocation. 

I am reminded of a friend who recently died. He had a view of Christian practice to which I did not fully ascribe. I thought it a little too individualistic. There were other significant issues about his situation where he had abused trust of people and some folks wondered where he was situated spiritually after he died. My only thought was what I said above; we cannot peer into a person’s heart to measure one’s faith and understanding. We can only rely on their participation in our fellowship and let God be the judge.

What is important though is how we bring people into our congregations. I caution we need to be very careful about placing many prerequisites on people for congregational membership. More importantly, we have to be very careful to listen to those who say they have been called to our fellowship even if they challenge long-held beliefs because we may be entertaining Angels.

We may feel some parts of our creeds are as sacrosanct as Peter thought the prohibition of associating with gentiles and eating impure food was. We ought to always be aware we form creeds by interpreting and applying scripture. If getting to a creed or interpretation causes conflict it can be healthy if it leads to a robust and healthy unity in faith open to the Holy Spirit rather than affirming our inner opinions or bias. At the same time, if that conflict drives a wedge in a congregation or denomination between brothers and sisters who hold faithfully to the same basic Christian faith that Jesus voiced in the gospel of John, “I am the way, the truth and the light, no one comes to the Father except through me,” or “He that believes in me shall not perish but have everlasting life,” then the conflict is the work of the world, or worse, not the work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul, the Ethiopian (see Acts 8:26-40) and Cornelius show conversion has many faces. Paul (see Acts 9:1-22) was a hostile Jew persecuting Christians who had to have a dramatic personal encounter with Jesus to turn him into the persecuted apostle. Cornelius had a religious devotion to God, and the Ethiopian had an open, inquisitive mind that made them both receptive to God. We see three different ways God called people to faith - a blinding revelation, a religious devotion and an inquiring mind. The devotional I read concluded that Jesus was a simple person whose only desire in life was to glorify God by doing God’s bidding, be part of God and enjoy God’s grace among God’s children. 

Can we demand anyone to aspire to any thing more?  If we demand more are we putting a stumbling block in the way? AMEN.

Day 188 - The Power of Congregational Leadership

A sermon delivered June 16, 2013  Jeremiah 7:1-7,  Acts 6:1-7; Luke 20:45 –21:4 

The synagogue obligation to care for widows and poor described in Acts is rooted in the Law. This obligation goes back to the flight from Egypt in the Sinai desert. The book of Exodus (22:21-22) tells us that the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites, “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.” In Deuteronomy (10:12-13,17-18), Moses delivered the ten commandments and asks the people, “So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.”

And in chapter 24 (vv17-19), The Lord had Moses repeat to all Israel, “You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge.  Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.  When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings.” And if that is not enough, in Deuteronomy 27:17 - 19, Moses warns them, “Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind person on the road.  All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’  Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’”

The psalmist proclaims the same message (146:7-9), “Happy is the one who has faith in the Lord (who) sets the prisoners free; (who) opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down and loves the righteous.  The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.”

The prophet Isaiah says (1:16,17): “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Jeremiah delivered the words of the Lord to Israel (7:1-2,6-7), “ (This is) The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house and proclaim there this word, … if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.”

I think God intends a message here, don’t you? The message is “Never forget but for the grace of God, go I.”

There is something at the heart of God’s grace that expects compassion for widows and the destitute and a thanksgiving to the Lord that brought us out of slavery.  Jesus said that not only are we obligated to honor the widows, but everyone who is spiritually and physically hurting those suffering the slavery of physical poverty and spiritual poverty. Jesus points to the generosity and sacrifice of the widow as an example.  Luke (20:46-47) criticized the scribes who profess a false piety, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

And in Mark (12:44) Jesus uses the widow’s gift and the scribes’ hypocrisy as an example, saying, “For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Since the entire first believers were drawn from the Jews of Jerusalem, it is no wonder that the Twelve disciples with their Jewish heritage and the words of the crucified Jesus still ringing in their ears took seriously the complaint of the immigrant Greek Jews that their widows were being shortchanged at meals. 

But the Twelve already faced a great challenge trying to continue the mission of proclaiming the Good News and administering to those in the congregation who had physical and spiritual needs.  They proposed to appoint some members of the congregation who were “full of the Spirit and wisdom” to help the Twelve in the mission of proclamation of the Good News. They selected 7 men to help.  We know all seven had a powerful effect, and two of them will be large figures in the evolving history of the early Christian believers, Stephen, a man full of the Spirit and wisdom who was martyred, and Philip.

While the Twelve clearly intended these seven were to help with the feeding, it also shows they had full support of the congregation and were part of the proclamation of the Good News.  Our text says (v5) this proposal “pleased the whole community,” and (v7) “The 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.”

These seven were called or “ordained” because the Apostles laid hands on them. That is a symbolic tradition that indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. In modern times we use this passage as the basis for our deacons, but this passage only broadly points to the tradition of ordained ministry. But the significance of these seven people has a deeper meaning.

One significant point of the call of these seven is the critical importance of congregational leadership in our ministry.  It tells us that the congregation itself must be part of the leadership and its activities in the community. Leaders are called to meet the needs of the people through guidance and service. This decision by the Twelve apostles to call on the congregation to help was clearly effective because it enlarged the congregation beyond expectation. Verse 7 tells us,

“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.

How do we apply this experience to our present day? We have pastors (called teaching elders now) and session members  (called ruling elders now) and some congregations still have deacons. Congregations need leaders – they need pastors who read, interpret and proclaim the Word - that was the motivating factor for the Twelve to bring in the new seven.  But like many things that have happened in the first days of the congregation, the Lord has a way of shaping events to have consequences that go far beyond what the original plan intended.

The Apostles thought they were getting people to support their work of proclaiming the Gospel that would freei them from having to feed the widows.  What they got were congregational leaders who by supporting the twelve and their own proclamation caused a great increase in believers, even bringing Jewish priests into the fold.

Had I read on in Acts, like I did last Wednesday night, we would hear how Stephen took on the whole priestly establishment with a full testimony to the Gospel from Abraham to Jesus that led to his martyrdom as Saul stood by. Rather than silence Stephen, it scattered the disciples and leaders carrying the Good News into Samaria and far beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem, if you will, starting the missionary movement of our Church.

The congregation of believers was becoming the “C”hurch of Jesus Christ that was calling its newly selected congregational leaders to a vocation of Christian leadership. Christianity not only survived (as we know), it expanded rapidly. This was caused in large part by the devotion of its lay leaders who were inspired and led by the Holy Spirit.  How much of the compassion for widows by those seven from the congregation was the testimony to the whole community?

Today, many take the “C”hurch for granted and let their obligation to personal leadership wane. We live in a society overgrown with material culture. It shapes our values and diverts our attention from our history.  Some folks say Christianity is so widely spread that virtually everyone in the world knows about it and has an opportunity to embrace its teaching. There isn’t much need for a calling to service in mission.

Many of us don’t think that way. We bring our gifts, both money and spirit to the congregation to further its work in the world.  Unfortunately in our society, the number of those that understand that obligation is decreasing. Some young families (and churches) see the church the same way they see the YMCA. You pay your $100 annual dues and enjoy its benefits, whether it is childcare while you relax in worship, playing basketball in the nice gym, eating at cookouts or just the enjoying the social interaction. This isn’t a particular problem for First Presbyterian Church but  it is a pervasive problem throughout our “C”hurch.

The only way we can combat this mindset is to remember we are a congregation of believers just like that early one in Jerusalem. When our congregants are called to service, it is a holy calling.  The Lord expects us to have the mindset of Stephen, and even Paul.

It is a very remote chance any of us will have to face martyrdom in order to stand for our faith as Stephen and later Paul. But everyday, the world looks at us with a skeptical and questioning eye. It particularly looks to our leaders. Some of those skeptical and questioning eyes are our children’s. Some are our neighbors. Some may be even the congregations down the road.

The story of the first seven disciples called into service for the Lord tells us today is that each of us who have made an ordination or baptismal vow are obligated to strong and exemplary leadership. Strong and exemplary leadership is self-giving to build Christ’s church. It may be teaching the lesson in Sunday School, working with our youthful visitors on Wednesday night, following up with a visitor to be sure they know we want them to return, or inviting a friend or neighbor to worship with us, or even coming down to turn the sound on for a memorial service and checking to see if the doors are unlocked or making an act of compassion for a neighbor in need of help.

It is not an opportunity to allow others to take advantage of you - though that might happen. Remember our passage on 2 Corinthians last week, “God loves a cheerful giver.”

We also must realize and recognize that some of those who fulfill this obligation most zealously do it in such a private and unassuming way that we overlook them or abuse their willingness to serve.

That is why it can be hard to get people to “volunteer.” People are daunted by the task, fearful, or perhaps unable to step up to strong leadership. But, all the prophets learned, to name a few, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Stephen, that the Holy spirit empowers those who are called (notice I did not say are prepared) to follow its leadership. Those who put more back into the world than they remove are blessed. This is our vocation, welcome aboard. AMEN.