Community Church Sermons
September 7, 2008
Pentecost
17
Matthew 18:15-20
Click to Listen
If you have been living anywhere other than under a rock these past few weeks, you know that today’s sermon title is a not-so-veiled reference to some discussion taking place lately within and between our political parties.
With John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential running mate, we have heard a lot of commentary on the fact that she has been a small town mayor – in fact, the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska where my friends David and Martha Blanchette pastor one of our Community churches. Some people have criticized the selection of Mrs. Palin, saying that a small town mayor doesn’t have the experience to be Vice-President.
Others have turned this argument around, pointing out that Senator Obama, the Democratic nominee for President, does not have a lot of experience himself. They point out that being a community organizer does not qualify one to be President.
And so the two camps have been poking each other back and forth over the plusses and minuses of being either a small town mayor or a community organizer. My personal favorite line was Sarah Palin’s when she said that being a small town mayor is sort of like being a community organizer – except a small town mayor has actual responsibilities!
That’s a pretty funny line! I’m just glad she didn’t add a zinger in there about ministers!
Now it’s not my intention today to talk about Presidential politics, but rather to ask you to think about the importance to society of both small town mayors and community organizers. Both, in their own way, work at bringing people together to accomplish what they could not do as individuals on their own.
When I was in seminary, one of our professors asked our class, “Is it possible to be a Christian alone?”
I think every person in our class responded in the affirmative. We were all puffed up with a sense of Jesus-and-me is all you need, “Yes, it IS possible to be a Christian alone.”
Then our professor asked us to look up some bible passages and to read them aloud. “Love one another.” ”Pray for each other.” “Bear each other’s burdens.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Then he asked, “How many of those things can you do by yourself?”
Why, none of them! They all speak about Christians being connected to others. The professor said, “”You can BECOME a Christian all by yourself. But you can’t LIVE as a Christian all by yourself.”
You see, God is like a small town mayor or a community organizer. God has constructed a faith that brings people together to accomplish things we cannot accomplish on our own. God has wired us to need each other.
This is the very principle that is expressed in our Gospel reading today.
Here are two little “life situations” that, for success, require more than just an individual’s effort. The first has to do with when someone hurts you in a deep and profound way, and how to navigate the dangerous shoals of accountability and – eventually – possible reconciliation.
So Jesus says, “Go and tell the other person about the hurt – privately – just between you and that person.” I think all of us know that there are times in our lives when we hurt each other without intending it and even without knowing we have inflicted the hurt. And when we find out that we have brought hurt to another, we feel terrible and want to make amends. That’s why it’s better to just go privately to that other person and, in a loving way, tell them how their words or actions have hurt you. Oftentimes, that kind of speaking the truth in love saves a friendship!
It’s a whole lot better than writing a letter to the editor of, say, The Connection. And it’s a great deal better than going around the cocktail circuit spreading poison about the other person. The Bible says you’ll go to hell for that. Check out Romans 1:29 for some insight into the spiritual dangers of the sin of gossip!
So Jesus tells us to go speak face-to-face with the one who hurt you. Go gently. Go in a spirit of love and good will! You need to find peace with that person to be well.
But…what happens if the offending brother or sister won’t listen?
Well, Jesus says, get some friends involved. Bring them along, or even get them to speak to the other on your behalf. Sometimes you need a little help from your friends to accomplish what you can’t bring about on your own.
That’s how God made us!
The second little “life situation” the Lord talks about is when you get some great calling to do something wonderful in Jesus’ name. Don’t just rush out and do it on your own! Share the idea with a trusted Christian friend or two, and if they agree this is a good thing, you can be pretty sure this is God’s will. And they just may join in and help besides!
Many people don’t understand that ordination to Christian ministry is such a process. People hear all kinds of what they think are “callings” from God, but it is the community of faith that ultimately discerns whether the calling is genuine. I have a friend who three times has sought ordination to ministry in the United Methodist Church. Three times they have turned him down. And it’s always right after he does the psychological testing that they turn him down. What does that tell you? This man is my friend, but he is also nuttier than a fruitcake. So his sense of calling to pastoral ministry is not affirmed by the community. He’s just going to have to keep being a church musician!
“Wherever two or three come together in my name,” Jesus says, “there I am in the midst of them!”
The presence of Christ, the will of God, the guidance of the Spirit are found in the community of faith. You cannot be a Christian all alone and on your own. You NEED other people, and they need YOU!
So who are some of the other people we need to get connected with?
Let’s start with…each other!
Yesterday, I got that dreaded phone call from Bill Johnson, the chaplain at Loudon Hospital. Bill told me that Gordon Vanderipe had come into the ER and was gravely ill. So I jumped in my car and sped down to Lenoir City. I went into the family waiting room, and there was Sandy – all alone. Gordon had died. We held hands and wept together. A short while later, Bob Puckett came through the door. And a bit after that, Chuck Hill, Gordon and Sandy’s across the street neighbor. When it came time to leave, we formed a circle and had a prayer. We said the Lord’s Prayer…together. Then Bob drove Sandy home. A short while later, Jane Puckett arrived – along with their little dog Zany who jumped into Sandy’s lap and gave her great comfort.
We need each other. In times of sorrow, and in times of joy. One of the central tenets of the Community Church is expressed in our very name. We believe in the power and importance of community. We believe we need each other.
This is especially true in locales like ours where almost everybody is from someplace else. Our founding pastor Carl Burke says that one of his discoveries in the early days of Tellico Village was that people were lonely. They had pulled up roots and left behind children and support systems to move here. So it became important for the church to be a connecting point for finding belonging and friendship. And that’s even more true today than it was back then because our community has grown much larger and it’s easier for people to fall between the cracks. That’s one of the reasons we’re trying to hold out in front of all of us the importance of really working hard at reaching out to visitors and those who are new among us. Don’t ever leave church on a Sunday morning until you have made a friend with someone you don’t know!
We NEED each other!
And together, we are able to accomplish far more than we can on our own.
It was wonderful to have Army Chaplain, Captain Anthony Randall, with us this week. Chaplain Randall shared with us some incredible stories about how our Iraqi Kids project had affected the lives of so many children in that war-torn country. And he saluted our church and the other churches, and the American Legion, and all those others who joined together to make it possible. He said, “You put aside your own initiatives to respond to a cause that was greater than yourselves!”
We did it TOGETHER!
And there is so much more to do in our community and in our world.
We NEED each other!
And we need other Christians, too – Christians who are different than us!
One of my favorite things to do is to ask myself why it is that some groups of Christians feel so strongly about things that I have such little appreciation for, and sometimes that I even disagree with. Why does the Roman Catholic Church have such a strong stance on protecting and even advancing the rights of undocumented workers? I know how I feel about, but I want to know why THEY believe what they believe! And what about those Christians who think that abstinence education is the only form of sex education children should receive? I agree that abstinence SHOULD be taught, but alongside other approaches to prevent teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. But why do THEY believe what they believe!
Do you see what I’m saying? If all we ever do is stay in our own barnyard, think the thoughts we’ve always thought, and ignore, criticize, or turn our backs on other Christian people and groups who advocate values that are different from ours, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to learn and grow.
We need the different perspectives of those who share our common faith – otherwise, slavery would still be practiced in this country, women would not have the possibility of meaningful careers, men would not have the joy of being full partners in parenting, and you would be stuck with listening to me all the time! One of the great joys of my ministry is being able to listen to “the kids” preach! Tim and Rhonda are both great preachers whose insights on scripture I find very thought provoking and soul-inspiring. A few months ago when Tim and Rhonda were slated to preach, they both used the same lectionary text, but approached it from completely different angles. Both sermons were WONDERFUL! I told them to never do that again! Not really. Don’t you agree that we are blessed to listen to the different voices of God’s word through the different styles and perspectives of “the kids”?
We need each other. We NEED other Christians.
And finally, we need those who have gone on before us.
In a few moments, we’ll gather at the Communion table. The Sacrament of Communion goes all the way back to the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the last night of his life, and the Passover meal goes all the way back to the days when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. This ancient meal is packed with meaning that you can only get to by knowing the stories of Moses and Jesus and the disciples.
We NEED to connect with those who have gone on before us to give us a sense of our spiritual roots, to reveal what our faith really is, and how our faith has been lived out over the centuries.
At the end of today’s Communion service, we’re going to connect with our forbears by reciting the Apostles Creed. Parts of this creed can be traced back to the early first century. It was developed as a baptismal catechism up until about the 9th century. It was not the work of the apostles, but rather of the Christian communities as they worked through their faith in Jesus Christ in the face of competing religions, and theological corruption, and changing times. You and I will not understand or even agree with some of the statements in this creed, but we appreciate it and value it as the faithful expression of those who transmitted the faith to us over all the generations.
And we will respond to the creed by singing the Gloria Patri which began as a prayer in the earliest days of our faith, but then burst into hymn form around 325 AD when the Church affirmed that God exists eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Someone has said you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.
Christians today NEED to connect with those who have gone before us!
We need each other. We need other Christians. And we need the saints of long ago.
Christianity is a faith that understands that you can’t go it alone. We need other people! And when we commit ourselves to living in Christian community, we can accomplish far more good together than by ourselves.
So don’t disparage either small town mayors or community organizers. Both reflect the fact that God has created a world and a faith in which people need each other.
Don’t leave here today without making a new friend!
Don’t dismiss other Christians for their different beliefs, but learn from them.
And take time to discover and hold onto the faith of our fathers and mothers which brought Christ to you and me, and which has made the world in so many ways a better place.
“Wherever two or more are gathered in my name,” Jesus said, “there I am in the midst of them!”
Thanks be to God for the community of faith!