(This sermon is slightly modified to include powerful feedback from college students on the question of participating in worship.)
OT reading: Isaiah 56:3-8
Gospel reading: Matthew 15:10-28
Jewish leaders have argued and resisted the
obvious implication of Isaiah’s prophesy in chapter 56 since they were spoken
before the Captivity. The words are very clear; “Anyone who chooses to commit
themselves to the Lord and actively join themselves to the Lord participating
fully in the covenant community of worship deserves full acceptance in the
congregation.”
When the exiles returned to Jerusalem they took
over and the ones left behind were left out. The exiles took literally passages
such as Leviticus 21:16-24 that exclude the path to righteousness and worship for any
persons deemed unclean, whether visible skin ailments and diseases,
disfiguration by accident or birth, or were eunchs, etc. Perhaps it is a
natural human tendency to apply such prohibitions blindly and ignore the
compassionate commands in Leviticus 19:9,10, do not glean your fields
clean but do leave a boundary of unharvested crops for the poor and alien in
your land.
In these verses Isaiah paints a picture of
beautiful divine compassion for those who thirst for his fellowship (v7,8): “I
will bring them to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of
prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my
altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus
says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to
them besides those already gathered.”
But we only have to go to Ezra 4:1-3, 9 and 10,
to see how the returning exiles rejected Isaiah’s proclamation embracing only the exiles. They told the resident Judeans that they must abandon their wives
and children to rejoin the congregation of Israel.
How they could ignore the beginning chapter of
Isaiah (v10- 17) to get to that judgment in Ezra puzzles me. The Lord unambiguously
condemns those who ignore the ethical nature of Judaism and embrace only its
legalistic, mechanical interpretation. It causes the two more common troubles
between God and Israel, the loss of respect for the Lord in worship and mistreating
people in their midst.
Those verses say,” What is the
multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and
the fat of fattened beasts. When you come before me, who asked this from your
hand? Trample my courts no more (that is do not enter my temple again);
bringing offerings is futile…When you stretch out your hand I will hide my eyes
from you. I will not listen to your prayers. Your hands are full of blood wash
yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before
my eyes; cease doing evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the
oppressed, defend your son, plead for the widow. “
This is a powerful indictment of those who
forget the heart of the Law, but remember its rules. Isaiah’s words must be important because
Jesus proclaims them as his task and our duty on earth.
With those words in mind, let’s turn the words
of Jesus in the Matthew reading. The Pharisees have just confronted Jesus and
his disciples for ignoring the ritual of hand washing before they ate. Don’t
fall into a trap of modern thinking, the idea of germs and sanitation are far
removed from the circumstances of this ritual. Hand washing was a ritual of
religious preparation for worship. Any sanitary aspect was simply symbolic to
remove the touch of unholy things. Jesus rejects this mechanical adherence to a
ritual that ignores compassion towards ther sinner. He says it is what it is in
the heart that is important, not the hands.
He says that the Pharisees are blind guides leading the blind. Both will
fall into the pit.
We heard about compassion last week with the
story of fishes and loaves and Peter walking on water. When Jesus got out of the boat on the far
shore hoping to find a place of quiet rest, the large crowd met him. When he
saw them he had heart-wrenching compassion for they were sheep without a
shepherd. Brothers and sisters, it’s the compassion in the heart that is important. In today's Gospel reading Jesus repeats the importance of compassion of the heart with this Canaanite
woman. Jesus must want to be sure that we understand this point.
The Canaanite, non-Jewish woman begs Jesus to
heal her daughter who was tormented by a demon. The disciples say, “Sent her
away for she keeps shouting after us.” Don’t they have the same attitude they
had about the hungry crowd at the sea of Galilee; “It’s getting late they don’t
have any food so send them away so they can find something to eat?”
Jesus’ first reaction to the woman is, “I was
sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She pleads, ”Lord, help
me.” He still answers, ”It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it
to the dogs.” It puzzles me why didn’t he recall Isaiah 56, the prophecy to bring
all his peoples together?
Does he really mean what he says, or does he have Isaiah
56: 3-8 in mind after all. Is he using on us the irony of the woman’s argument
in the face of calling only to Israel?
Jesus then says faith is the only key. “Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the
daughter was healed instantly. The implication to a well-read Pharisee and
penitent Jew is unavoidable, Jesus is bringing the alien Gentile into his
flock.
Conventional wisdom holds, as Paul often repeats, that the message from of
Isaiah and the words in Matthew mean Gentiles are adopted into the loving
kindness of the Lord through the resurrection of Jesus. We all have the
opportunity to receive grace.
It is a powerful message that fueled the
missionary movement since the earliest days of Christianity from the Great Commission, (Matthew 28:19-20.) Christians have done an admirable job in
spreading that word and growing from a ragtag band of 12 to the billions of people.
Yet the history professors in seminary will tell
you that Christianity worldwide has spread to, and stuck on about a third or so of
the world’s population. It’s pretty clear that where Christianity is
well-established the number of observant Christians stagnates or declines.
Presbyterians are an interesting example of it but
we see it in other mainline denominations. The percentage of Presbyterians in
the United States maxed at about 4% in 1965 and has declined steadily by 50% to
about two percent now, but we find this change on a dramatic scale in Europe in
places of worship 200, 400, 600 years old that stand virtually empty.
At the same time, Christianity is growing
explosively in Africa, Asia and South America. It is almost like hearts and
minds are ready to receive the word and we only have to bring the spark of the
Holy Spirit and things change fast. The
nature of Christian worship in these areas lives and expresses the spirit of
grace in an emotionally active way. It tends to be evangelical, or Pentecostal.
There were two periods of widespread evangelism in the United States in the 1700s in the 1800s called the Great
Awakening. The key pastors who were responsible for this explosive growth of
Christianity in America were taken aback by the
emotionality and exuberance of the converted people. Their contemplative,
logical, rational Greek thinking shaped their traditional historical faith tradition and squeezed
out all the emotion. These pastors knew God was at work but they weren’t very comfortable with His manifestation.
Let’s explore two connected questions: Why did
this Great Awakening stop, and what has happened in the mainline churches?
After all Jesus proclaimed the doors to salvation are open to all, where is everyone?
Take our Presbyterian Church. We are very
wealthy and dominated by older adults. I read someplace that the average age of
member of the PC(USA) is about 60. The number of people with annual incomes of
$60,000 or more is about a third higher than the general population. The number
of people making under $30,000 a year is about 80% less than the general
population. We represent only 2% of the population. The situation is similar
for most of the so-called mainline churches.(See references at end for sources.)
Why this has happened is not an intellectual
debate. It has real consequences for our survival as the body of
Christ.
Jesus proclaimed that the gospel is open all who
have “little,” where “little” defines both economic and spiritual poverty. It forces us to ask a slightly different
question. If the doors are flung wide open for all people to come to grace so
why are so many people leaving or not approaching our congregations? Why do
people with low incomes, the youth, socially disadvantaged and people of color
define a hole in our Gospel? Why so often are the negatively perceived of our
society absent from out congregations?
Richard Neibhur wrote extensively about these changes
in the first half of the 20th century. In the midst of the Great Depression about
1935 he poses the question, “What must the church do to be saved?”
Then he iterates reasons. If you close your eyes
and listen to them you will visualize much criticism we hear today. People are
drifting away from the Word; there’s too many things in the world today luring
our people away. Read the newspapers or look at what you find on the Internet
and you can see all the sicknesses of a sin-sick world.
But Richard Niebuhr had a rather unique take on
the answer. He said we are simply describing the reality of living in the world of
flesh without a dose of humility. He said we fool ourselves to think our Church
is only a noble thing. We have done much good in the world but we have also by
omission or commission done harm by sanctioning wars and slavery, encouraging
economic disparities, and not dealing with the dehumanization by the technical
Industrial Revolution. His point is that the Church is God’s creation of and
for humanity. Its sole purpose is spreading the grace of Jesus Christ in word
and deed, something we did well in the missionary days.
Richard Neibhur says God is not worried about
the Church (capital "C"), God is only worried about you and me. The Church belongs to
Christ and will remain until God calls us all home. If this human Church fails
its duty, the Lord will find, create or inspire a new Church that fulfills his
plan. By measure of our society, RN says the Church is doing a failing job. Richard Neibuhr says we must abandon denominationalism. We aren't Presbyterians or Methodists, we are Christians. Presbyterianisn and Methodism are reflections of cultural values, Christianity is a reflection of Christ.
So we face a real question, “What must Church do
to be saved?”
I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could
stand here before you and list the steps we need to take, but I would be a fool
to stand and recommend them to you because I would be presuming far more
insight into the nature of humanity and God than I have.
So I ask where are all those missing people are
not sitting in our congregations? I don’t to debate or hypothesize where they
have all gone. I want to do something about it. In my reading and preparation
for this sermon I came across an interesting exercise that can help us find
answers. We ought to answer the question to save the Church, “Where has everybody gone who have
formed this hole in our Gospel?”
Perhaps we need to go ask those people who are
not here. I did this
exercise before this sermon with a group of college students who have been invited into an open door of a Presbyterian ministry on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. They come because they are not threatened or harangued. They come because they are offered unconditional love, a shared table and a shoulder to cry upon as equals. I asked them humbly to tell me “Do you or don't you attend a local worship service and is it a place you may find support? If you do, or if you do not, please share with me some of the reasons you do or no longer attend a church? (We ought
to go down to urban Chattanooga and ask the same questions.)
I suspect if we asked those questions with a
great amount of humility, compassion and discernment we will begin to
understand how to right this boat.
It is a daunting task. I thought I'd get answers we will not like that reflect their own selfishness or human desire or criticize of our
hypocrisy. (We try to live in the ways of Jesus knowing none of us really “walk
the talk," that makes us all hypocrites at one level or another.)
These are some responses I received:
"My family never attended church so neither do I."
"Yes I do because I want to get to know God.'
"I've hopped around looking for a congregation moving with the Holy Spirit but I haven't been successful I know the Lord will provide one in due time. I seek a church that is loving, welcoming and has a family feel.""I don't regularly attend a worship service and do not have time to do it. I struggle with my beliefs and faith. I do not like hearing things about God or talking about God. I like listening to bible stories because a lot of life lessons can be learned. I also feel like people believe because they were told to, and do not question anything or see the works of God for themselves."
"I hated going to church the few times I did growing up because I felt very judged. Anytime I went, I felt unwelcomed. I feel that a church is a place for people to go to make themselves feel better about being "Christian," yet when they leave they do not practice what they preach. I believe God is about love and acceptance and most places I've been do not give this vibe."
"I usually work on Sundays."
"No, I attend activities that connect me with other people or find peace in activities like yoga and the amazing dinners served at Hope 808. i have found that generally organized religion tends towards close-mindedness, and unable to compromise with differing views, although I do not deny such open-minded groups can exist. I was raised in a non-Christian religion."
"I do not currently attend church or any place of worship. I used to when I was younger but no longer find myself gaining anything from attending as I do not believe in organized religion."
"I find peace, patience and introspection through my yoga practice. i don't attend church because I find I gain nothing and generally it's full of hypocrites."
To an extent theri comments were as I thought, "They say that we say one thing but do another. People at church frown on me or judge me."
Then I realized two things. These students do thirst for a comforting, assuring experience; and they may not know that they have been experiencing at Hope 808 such a faithful worship service of an organized Presbytery that cares deeply about their welfare and faith. We have to await that realization.
To save our Church we’re going to need to think deeply about how to understand and approach healthy and unhealthy social relationships and the pressures of cultural change, how to provide for the disadvantaged among us in a way that does not hurt either of us but helps, how to surmount some of the objections these young people raise without abandoning the essential tenets of faith. And to clarify the picture of the situation, we did not go to urban Chattanooga where a college education or a professional career is hardly even an afterthought in the ruins of the day.
You can imagine that the biggest job is
discerning the path through the complaints to make worship in our congregation
faithful and worthwhile for them and for us.
In my sermon last week I talked about Peter,
faith, the water and the boat. The
answer to how to save the Church may not be as much a matter of righting the
boat as it is getting out of the boat and starting to walk on the water with the people who hunger for grace.
Amen.
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