Community
Church Sermons
Fifth Sunday of Easter
– May 9, 2004
“Reinventing the Church
Birthing A New World”
If I were to say the word “Stellan” – S-T-E-L-L-A-N - what would it mean to you? Anything? And what about the word spelled E-M-R-Y-S – “Emrys”? Does that ring a bell?
Well, I’m happy to report to you that Stellan Emrys is a name! It’s the name of a newborn baby - our family’s most recent arrival – a baby boy born to my nephew Andrew Cathcart and his wife Jestina. Stellan Emrys is my sister Karen’s first grandchild, and boy, is grandma ever proud!
Word spread quickly through our family late this week that Jestina had gone to the hospital, and we all waited anxiously for the news. We knew the baby would be a boy, but we were anxious to find out how big he would be, and if he was good and healthy…and what his name would be. That had been held in the strictest secrecy.
So when my sister Karen called the other night with the details, and I could see Sandy writing down the name and then asking several times for clarification on the spelling, I knew it was going to be a doozy!
Stellan Emrys Cathcart.
For a brief moment, I thought to myself, “Why couldn’t they just give the boy a regular name?” I mean, what’s wrong with Bob? Or Bill? Or even Marty? Why do kids today give their children these strange names that are hard to pronounce, let alone spell?
Stellan Emrys Cathcart.
But then I remembered all the names Sandy and I considered when our children were born. And although we were more limited in our day by stricter naming conventions than exist today, we nonetheless put a great deal of thought into the names we gave our children - Peter Martin – an apostle… and a saint! Only kidding! And Bethany – the little village just over the hill from Jerusalem where Jesus had some special friends – Bethany ANGELL-with-two-L’s – Sandy’s maiden name. We put a lot of our hearts into those names!
Do you remember what a sacred task it was to name your children?
And it strikes me that Andrew and Jestina – no longer bound by the naming rules of previous generations – had truly devoted themselves just like we had to the very precious and important work of naming their child.
Stellan, they tell us, means “star”. And Emrys is a Welsh form of Ambrose, which means “immortal.”
Oh, the naming of a child is much more than figuring out something to call it. The naming of a child is the articulation of a dream about the meaning of a human life.
Immortal Star.
Stellan’s mother and father are dreaming great dreams for their son!
Today, on Mother’s Day, we can deeply appreciate the dreams that parents – and especially mothers – hold for their children. No mother ever held a child in her arms and hoped that someday her son would be gainfully unemployed, or that her daughter would serve time in prison for insider trading. Parents do not dream dreams of failure, sadness and underachievement for their children. We dream dreams of success and accomplishment and joy. We dream the best of life for our kids!
But what do we dream for our world?
This is one of the questions the Gospel of Jesus demands we answer. The truth of the matter is that the most beautiful dreams we have for our children will never come to be if our dreams for the world in which we and they live are not high enough. If you would imagine for your children lives of wholeness, fulfillment and opportunity, you must also envision a world of wholeness, fulfillment and opportunity.
What happens to children when they live in a place where unemployment is at 60% and the best job in the neighborhood is selling drugs or sex? What happens to people when success in today’s world demands a good education but the larger community is not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to provide it? What happens to old people when the cost of prescription drugs far exceeds their income from Social Security – or when the old company decides it’s not going to pay retiree health benefits anymore? What happens to whole societies when they live under the oppressive thumb of a dictator? What happens to people when they are nurtured in a religion that teaches exclusion and hatred of people who are different? What happens to people when they live in places where the environment is destroyed and poor water and air quality cause high rates of cancer and asthma?
What happens to the dreams of a mother for her children when the world in which they live cannot support those dreams? What happens to the dreams of a mother when she sends her little child off into a world that actively undermines her values, her faith, and her hopes?
Make no mistake about it, the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes it crystal clear that the dreams we have for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren are directly tied to the dreams we have for our world.
I’ve been preaching these past few Sundays about what many people today believe is the need for the Christian Church to reinvent itself. Once again, I want to emphasize that our FAITH does not need reinventing – our faith is good and strong and life giving, like good wine! But the WINESKIN we’ve been carrying this good faith around in has become old and worn and full of leaks. And just like Jesus said, you can’t put new wine in old wineskins!
We have talked about how we need a Church in the 21st century that stops condemning and excluding people. How did we ever become an institution that is so unlike Jesus? We need to start living again as a community where people are accepted for who and what they are, forgiven for who and what they are not, and loved over the long term with the transformational love of Jesus Christ.
We also have talked about how we need a Church today that calls upon people to use their brains, and that stops advocating stupidity as a legitimate substitute for faith. Christianity is intended to be a thinking person’s faith whose mysteries and majesty can only be discovered when we become willing to ask questions, challenge the status quo, and explore our doubts with integrity. We are not called to love God with all our heart and soul and strength, but rather with all our heart, MIND, soul and strength. We need the reinvention of a thoughtful Church.
And today, I’m adding a third challenge for reinventing the Church. We need to become a community that dreams high dreams for the world, just like a mother dreams high dreams for her children. We must become a community of people who throw themselves every day into the work of trying to bring that better world into being for the sake of ALL God’s children.
Listen to how the early Christians described their vision for the world:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…the dwelling of God will be with people…he will wipe every tear from their eyes…there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain…”
And then God, in response to the vision, says, “Behold I am making everything new!”
This is one of the things that truly excites me about the Christian Faith. If I wasn’t a Christian already, I’d become one for the sake of this conviction. God is making a new world in which the highest dreams for humanity will one day be fulfilled. And one of the fundamental duties of the Christian Church is to join with God in the work of transforming the world into this better place. So one of the questions Christian people need to spend some time with is this:
What would the world look like if you could create it anew?
It was when I was a little boy of eleven or twelve that I first encountered the evil of racism. I don’t think I even knew the word back then, but what I did know was this – our minister had rented an apartment to a black family – and the neighbors threatened to kill them all. As a young white boy living in a predominantly white community up north, I had no idea these sorts of things went on. I was dismayed. But over the course of the next many years – right up to this very day – I have learned that this is a world in which some people are just not welcomed – this is a world in which some are denied the very dignity of their humanity – this is a world in which the dreams of some mothers will never be realized for their children simply because they are black.
And the Gospel asks me if I am willing to accept that sad vision for the world, and if not, asks me what I’m willing to do about it?
What would the world look like if you could create it anew?
I was serving my first church when I learned about bi-polar disorder. Back then, they called it manic-depression, and what I learned about it was that, if you were a family where one of the members was bi-polar, life could be a very lonely and frightening journey, never knowing what the next day would bring. And as with all forms of mental illness, bipolar disorder carries with it all sorts of stigma and people who suffer with it – directly or indirectly – are pushed way off to the fringes of life. When budgets need to be cut, money for mental health support, education and research is the first to go. When good places like churches are asked to develop support programs for people dealing with issues like depression and suicide, leaders become frightened. It’s much easier and less intimidating to support a Boy Scout Troop.
When I think about the families I’ve known whose lives have been affected by one form of mental illness or another, I find myself dreaming about a day when – even if the illness cannot be eradicated – the rest of the community would encircle these families with love and care, and that we as a society would be generous in providing resources for finding ways toward wellness.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ asks me if I am willing to accept the challenge of working toward that kind of community. Jesus, you know, went out of his way to reach out to those who suffered the oppression of mental illness.
Oh, what would the world look like if you could create it anew?
On Thursday of this week, Dr. Bill Dobbins will be leading a discussion about what can be done to deal with the growing numbers of people all around us who do not have adequate health care. We have some folks in our own congregation who thought they had their future pretty well planned until they found out their former employer was cutting back or eliminating health insurance benefits. For some in our community, that news comes at an age when health issues have become extremely challenging and important. I mean, how many people here today have at least one artificial; something-or-another? My goodness, do we have anyone here whose body is made up of 100-percent genuine human parts? My greatest fear, of course, is that one day a truck with a great big electromagnet on the back will drive by on the Parkway during church services, and Bob and I will be crushed by the response. It will be the world’s biggest altar call!
But seriously, if we in a relatively affluent community find it increasingly difficult to access health care, can you imagine what it’s like for a young family? Today, there are nearly 44-million Americans who have no health coverage., including 8.5 million children.
When Jesus walked among us, people came to him as a source of healing. He turned no one away. He was not only interested in people’s souls, but in their physical and mental well-being as well. Christians, since the very beginning, have considered health issues as a central concern of the Gospel. The first hospitals in this country were started by Christians. Wherever you go in the world, you will find Christian medical missionaries bringing a healing touch to people in need. And you cannot drive through any city today where you don’t see a storefront clinic that is supported and run by Christians.
So at a time in history when the numbers of people without access to good health care are swelling by the day, what can we do to extend the healing power of Jesus Christ? It is a complex and, in many ways, controversial subject. But the Gospel asks us if we are willing to take up the challenge of bringing God’s healing grace to everyone who needs it.
What would the world look like if you could create it anew?
Well, these are just a very few of the many important issues the Church in the 21st century must dare to engage. And mind you, there are no simple solutions to the problems we face. But there are some practical things the Church can do in response:
First, the Church can commit itself to working toward building God’s vision for the world.
Second, the Church can inspire conversation about God’s dream, and explore ways of making it come true.
Third, the Church can become a conscience in the community, rising up above petty politics and self-interest to articulate the dream of what we can be and what the world can become.
And fourth, the Church can become willing to construct examples of God’s dream wherever and whenever it can. Build friendships with people of other races. Reach out to embrace families affected by mental illness, and advocate for them. Start a health clinic, volunteer at a hospital, begin a parish nursing ministry, work with others to discern ways to cover uninsured families.
Those are four “C’s” that can contribute to the new world God is building!
Stellan Emrys Cathcart. Boy, that’s a mouthful! But what a beautiful dream!. I join with Stellan’s mother and father in praying that this little boy will bring a kind of light into the world that will last forever. Stellan Emrys. Immortal light.
It’s a wonderful name for a mother’s dream, don’t you think?
But let me ask you this: do you know the name God has given to the new world he dreams?
Well, the name God gives to His dream….is heaven.
And the job of the Church is to
help give birth to heaven…on earth!