A Church Without Walls (Matthew 10:40-42)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 6/29/14




If you have ever driven in downtown Memphis Tennessee, you know that it can be quite an adventure. With all of the allure of the bright lights and sounds of blues emanating from Beal Street, with the great history of places like Sun records where many legends of early rock and roll played  Elvis and Johnny Cash just to name a few, with the appeal of world class bbq on almost every block, one knows that with one wrong turn you can be in a very unfamiliar, uninviting, and quite frankly frightening part of town. This is situation that faced one of my good friends and me during my senior year of college. We had travelled to Memphis, already having taken in Graceland we now made our way downtown to see a basketball game and to grab something to eat.  We see the arena, we see the lights of Beal street, but one thing we don’t see is parking. So we have to make a few turns down some roads that seemed to be leading us away from the celebration of the city, into a more turbulent area. Finally we find a place to park on the side of the road, near some small park and as we get out we notice some strange columns just standing in the park. It almost looked like Stonehenge here in the middle of downtown Memphis.  As we were standing there, it must have been apparent that we didn’t know what we were looking at, because a stranger walked up to us and said, “it’s a church.” They call it “the church without walls.” He went on to tell us about how members of the community would meet here in the park for worship. How every week lines of people would form as this church fed those in the community. He told us the church without walls has no barriers, nothing keeping others from coming in, and nothing to stop members from going out to serve.  What does it mean to be a church without walls?

            What purpose are our walls serving?  Now I don’t mean what purpose are the walls literally serving, Of course these walls give us a place to gather for worship, a place for Bible studies and Sunday school and much more where we are safe from the rain or snow or Sun. The walls of course serve to be a place to escape the blistering heat of summer or the freezing cold of winter, but beyond this, what is the purpose of these walls, and have we become too familiar and comfortable with them?

            Somewhere down the line we as Christians have  lost the meaning of Church. Just the fact that we can say I’m going to church, or that our church is located on Lambs Church Rd/  Church Ln, shows that we have gotten things so mixed up that we don’t even know what we are saying anymore.  If we look at Acts we don’t find stories of buildings, we find stories of communities. We find stories of Peter and Paul, and Barnabas, and Timothy and Apollos traveling all around spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, baptizing new members into community of Christian fellowship and serving the poor, the sick, the orphaned, the widowed and the downtrodden. That was Church. Even in the letters that we find Paul writing to the churches in Corinth, or in Ephesus, these are not letters to some steepled building, these are letters to a community of believers, letters to a counterculture working through the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the world while they themselves are being transformed. Fast forward many many years to 18^th century England and we see the development of church buildings have become common practice, and still John Wesley did not call these buildings churches, but rather they were referred to as part of a parish. A parish is a small divide or community of a greater church. Even still the building was not the parish, the community that worshipped there were. I bet if we look back into the history of this church we will find that it too is centered around a community. I bet we would find a community of believers who wanted to gather together in worship and service, and I would bet you that moment is when this building was built.  Throughout history church has always  been about a community of believers gathering for worship and service.

And yet something has changed. It is as if these walls hold some power, that over time these walls have convinced us that church is not this community gathered together, but the walls themselves. When coming to worship or to some meeting how often do we say we are going to church as if church is where we meet rather than those who are gathering.  Shouldn’t we be saying that we are going to be the church?  We say our church is located on this or that road when shouldn’t we be saying our church gathers at Lambs Church Rd/ 20 Church Ln? 

            Over time, these walls have a profound effect upon us.  Over times these walls can talk to us, the can trick us in to believing that we are not the church, but that church is only what happens within these walls.  These walls coax us into a false sense of entitlement, that this is our church, and it should be done the way we want it.  These walls can even become a barrier, instead of being a place to drawn the community together, they can become a way to separate us from those around us.

            This is our human nature, Jesus knows that we can become insular, Jesus knows we can become too comfortable with the status quo and in the process can become unwelcoming to the stranger. This is why as many of the followers of Jesus are gathered around him, listening to his instructions and be prepared to be sent into the world to serve, he tells them, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Jesus is preparing these ministers for the reality that they will go out in his name and at many places will be unwelcome. That they will go to fellowships of believers and they will be rejected. Yet those who welcome the guest, those who practice radical hospitality welcome Christ, and welcome the Father.

            Now we in the south know a little something about hospitality. We know how to clean up real nice for our guests, to offer them a glass of lemonade or sweet tea, then how to go about telling them how they are the most idiotic, misguided person, but it’s all ok, because we said bless your heart. Isn’t that how it goes, you can say the meanest thing to or about a person, but if you say bless their heart then it’s all good. This isn’t radical hospitality.  Radical hospitality is the one who accepts the sinner, the outcast, the one we’re afraid, and accepts them as equals, in fact puts them above themselves. 

            I am reminded of a story, of a poor man, his clothes all torn, his face dirty, a stench just radiates off of him. He walks into a church one day and sits down. He hears some mumbling and a few minutes later feels a tap on his shoulder; it was the usher. The usher tells him he’s sorry but he’s going to have to ask the man to leave, he is causing a distraction during worship. The man goes outside, sits outside the doors of the church and starts weeping. Suddenly another man comes and asks him what is wrong. The poor man replies, “I wanted to go to worship, I wanted to hear the choir and see the excitement from the children, but they won’t let me in”. The stranger replies, “It’s ok, my name is Jesus, and I’ve been trying to get into that church for years, but they won’t let me in either.”  Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

            Are we a church that welcomes Jesus? Abagail Van Buren once said, “The church is hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”  Are these walls acting as the home of a spiritual triage,  or are they protecting the rare artifacts housed inside?  You see, not only do these walls often serve as a barrier to keep others out, they can also become a way from keeping us from going out into the world. It can become a way of containing the church, and yet the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be contained. We see that even the earliest followers of Jesus, those who were even able to sit and listen and learn by his side did not remain there. They did not set up camp and say this is where Church is. In our scripture today, Jesus is sending his followers out into the world to serve. Are we prepared to go into the world and serve, and are we prepared to welcome those who come to lead us in service?  I think it is an amazing gift from God that this scripture is part of our lectionary reading on this day in which many churches around the conference are welcoming new pastors.  I pray that this scripture guides those churches, opens them up to receive the gifts the pastor has to bring. I pray that prophets around the conference will be heard, I pray that the righteous will be welcomed.

            And yet if we fall into an understanding of the pastor being the only one who is called go, called to reach out into the world, then we are deeply mistaken. Sure Christ tells people to welcome the prophet, to welcome the righteous. Yes this means those appointed to be evangelists and leaders of the church are called to go forth, but Christ also says, “And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple -- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” When Jesus says one of these little ones he is not talking about children, he is talking about the average Joe, he is talking about the power of the laity. He is saying that all  followers of Christ are called to go and serve, and that all followers of Christ are to be welcomed.

 Are we going?  Are we welcoming?  Are these walls hindering us from serving as Christ truly calls us to serve?  Do these walls act as a gate to keep out that which is outside, and to keep us in? What would it look like to be a church without walls?  What would it look like to once again recognize the church not as a meeting place but rather a community of follower of Christ gathering to worship and to serve our risen Lord?  What would it look like to offer radical hospitality? To welcome the stranger, the outcast, the sinner into this community, and even give them the power to change us? Imagine a church without walls, where the community could see something strange, the would see a collection of people from all over the community gathering and giving praise to the Lord almighty, gathering and learning and serving the Son of God. And imagine those people gathered, that even as they gather the see the world around them, they see the hurt, the injustice and the pain, and go into their community to change it.  Imagine a church without walls where every day we are reminded of sacred beauty of creation, that with each breath in which we are able to smell the daisies, each gentle gust of wind is a reminder of the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. Brothers and sisters this church exists for we are that church. This building and the ministry that is able to be done in this place is special, but this is not the church… we, we are the church, we are the church without walls.

            

I've Got The Power (Acts 2:1-21)

Sermon as preached on 6/8/14 at Lambs and Evington UMC

Image Courtesy of HermanoLeon Clipart

Today in the life of the church we celebrate the wonderful day of Pentecost. Pentecost is that most of us are familiar with, it is the day in which the Holy Spirit descended upon a group of followers gathered together, and though they spoke in different languages, they were able to understand each other as if they were hearing their native tongue.  We know Pentecost for the amazing events depicted here in Acts 2, with the tongues of fire resting on those gathered. It is why we celebrate this day with our altar adorned in red to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit, it is why many of us today are wearing red as well.  In fact, this wonderful day is part of the inspiration for our United Methodist logo  that we have all come to love. The cross of course depicting Jesus’s ministry on Earth, but also the flame, representing the fire of this day of Pentecost, the flame of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost is the day in which we celebrate the start of the early church as thousands were baptized on that day. For pastors and laity alike who are tasked for reading the Pentecost scripture, it is also a time to brush up on your reading skills as they have to pronounce a long list of different regions, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Phrygia and Pamphylia, and anyone who has read it knows it can be quite a tongue twister.  We as Christians already know and celebrate so much about this wonderful day of Pentecost, and yet there are some simple questions that I think we often fail to ask.  Why were there so many people from all around the known world there in Jerusalem on that day?  Or maybe the most obvious question that we fail to ask it what does the word Pentecost even mean?  When we start to answer these questions we may begin to learn more about this special day, and it may even give a more significant meaning of this day for our own lives.

            So what does the word Pentecost mean? Any guesses? Don’t be shy, there are no stupid guesses, I had to look it up myself.  I thought it would have to do something with the Holy Spirit, or with the start of the church, but in fact the term Pentecost simply means the “fiftieth day.” [1] The fiftieth day after what though? Well even though this term Pentecost has come to be an important term in the life of Christianity, the term itself actually originated long before even the arrival of Jesus Christ. Pentecost was fifty days after the celebration of Passover, the extremely important Jewish Holiday that celebrates the final plague of Egypt passing over the Israelites houses that were marked with Lamb’s blood. It also signifies the beginning of the Israelites freedom from captivity in Egypt.  Pentecost at the time of our story was fifty days after this great Jewish holiday, in fact Pentecost was its own Jewish holiday.  Sometimes also called the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost was one of three holy days in which Jews from all around the world would come together and gather in Jerusalem. That explains why the Parthians, and the Medes, and the Elamites were all there, they were there to celebrate Pentecost. Except Pentecost at that time was not a celebration of the Holy Spirit like we know today, Pentecost is said to have been a remembrance and celebration of Moses’ receiving of the law from God.

            And so here they are, believers from all over the known world gathered in Jerusalem, as well as Peter and some of the other followers of Christ,  all gathered for this Pentecost celebration, when something extraordinary happened. There was the sound a violent gushing wind. Tongues as if on fire descended and rested upon the followers of Jesus gathered and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and suddenly what they said, this great diverse crowd could understand.  This crowd started to take notice they said,  “"Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Galileans you see were notoriously known for their lack linguistic skills and knowledge of other languages, so imagine the surprise when these Galileans now seemed to be speaking each person’s own language. Something so strange and so powerful was obviously happening, that outsiders commented that these people must be drunk.  And yet when the people heard the message of the Holy Spirit, thousands were baptized and they too received the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost was forever transformed.

            The people in Jerusalem gathered for one particular reason. They gathered in remembrance and celebration of Moses receiving the Law, something that we should not take lightly. For the Jews this was a sign of God’s presence with the Israelites.  God had chosen Abraham, and made a covenant between Abraham and his descendants and God. Yet how were the people supposed to hold up that covenant, how were they supposed to be in relationship with God. Sure God spoke through some extraordinary people, like Jacob and even Moses, but how was the average Joe supposed to connect with God?  How was this nation of Israelites supposed to function as a people of the Lord?  These are questions answered by Moses on the mount, that now the people had a covenant with God through the Law. The Law would lay out how the Israelites were to live and to worship, how they were to be faithful to the will of God. This original Pentecost celebration was not insignificant, it signaled God’s covenant with the people and their obedience to God.  

            And yet something important has happened. God came to Earth as human. The people of Earth could actually see, feel, touch God! A relationship with God was no longer something relegated to a tablet or scroll, God was experienced firsthand!  Jesus Christ had come and died in order to restore all humanity. And in restoring all humanity he opened up salvation to all who believed, both gentile and Jew.  And then Jesus ascended, and God was no longer on Earth on bodily form, but things simply couldn’t return to the way it was before. How were the Jewish followers of Christ simply supposed to go back to a relationship with God through the Law, when they had experienced Christ firsthand?  How was the Law to be applied to those followers of Jesus who were not Jewish? And so on this day of Pentecost when the Jewish people were celebrating their covenant, their relationship with God, God once again was revealed to the people in a new way. Just as John the Baptist had proclaimed, just as Jesus had promised, the Spirit of God was poured out upon the people.  Our relationship with God had taken a new step. God is with us, always.

            As Christians I think we often overlook the importance of the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit.  We think of God the Father and all the wonders of creation from the work of his hands. We think of Jesus, and rightfully so, with the importance of his life, death, resurrection and ascension. And yet the Holy Spirit sometimes becomes an afterthought.  And yet on this day of Pentecost we are reminded of the wonders of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded that God is with us.  We are reminded of the new covenant established through the Holy Spirit. That covenant brings us all here together as a church.

            Because what is Church other than that family of God that have been united together through water and the Spirit; those who have been washed of their iniquities and who have received the power of the Spirit. The Church cannot be separate from the Spirit.  It is what we see in our scripture where through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the baptism of thousands of believers the church was created. We see it still in churches today, where often Pentecost is the day in which people who have been preparing for baptism are baptized. We see it in our creed where the church and the Holy Spirit are linked in the same line,  “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church.”  And I see it today as I look out at you all wearing red. It is a reminder that we are bound together, we are called together by the power of the Holy Spirit that is still with us today.

            And yet the Spirit calls us forward.   This day of Pentecost, God’s creation of the church is not how the books of Acts ends, but instead it is just the beginning. The whole rest of the book of Acts are stories of how the followers of Christ now receiving that Holy Spirit respond to that power.  From Stephen the matyr,  to Philip and the teaching and converting the Ethiopian Eunich, to Paul’s reaching the Gentiles in Athens,  we see how the followers of Christ faithfully responded to the power of the Holy Spirit. We as Christians are called to respond, we are called to go out into the world, we are called just as Jesus calls us in Matthew 28 to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”  And yet the beauty of it all, is that we do not do it alone. For Christ continues, “and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Now on this day of Pentecost we see the truth of this statement, that though Christ may have ascended,  he is forever with us through the power of the Holy Spirit. That God has made a new covenant, God has chosen us as sons and daughters, gentiles as we are, broken as we are. And more amazingly has put trust in our hands  to be part of this amazing restoration, this amazing transformation that is in store for all creation. It reminds me of a trust that was placed upon me and my youth group many years ago. Every fifth Sunday in my home church was considered youth Sunday, in which the youth of the church would lead worship, from responsive reading, to singing, and yes even preaching.  I remember one service in particular in which our group decided to do something different. Instead of one sermon by one person we did multiple mini sermons by multiple people. I remember as one of my friends presented his section, on war, a controversial topic for sure especially at the time right near the beginning of the war in Iraq, we heard the door slam in the back. Unknown to us, one member had taken exception to the message, and for the whole time in between the early service and the late service, this member berated my pastor about it. Now maybe this man had some points, maybe the issue was not handled in the best way, but how did my pastor respond? I mean no pastor wants to be yelled at, no pastor wants an angry member of the church, it would be totally understandable if after this Sunday he scrapped youth Sunday for good; but he trusted us, even in our missteps, even in our mistakes, he trusted us and we continued our youth Sundays.  It is so nice to have that type of trust. The trust that even with our faults, God believes in us to be part of Kingdom building. That even after we as humans rejected, abused, and crucified Jesus Christ, that he would still pour the Holy Spirit upon us, making a new covenant with us to be his people.

            That sort of trust is so powerful, and yet not only does God trust us in Kingdom building, he empowers us in it. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians of the many different gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit. From prophesy to wisdom to healing to faith, those of us who have received the power of the Spirit have been given special gifts for ministry, and we are special for not everyone has the same gift we do. Receiving the Holy Spirit is not just about our covenant with God, but that in all things God is with us.  That we can proclaim I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  We can proclaim If God is for us who can be against us.  Or maybe we can even shout like the great early 90’s song, “I’ve Got the Power.”  It almost like that can of spinach that popeye opens up and goes from being a puny dweeb to a massive hero.  It is a power that gives us the ability to do great things, and yet it is not our own power. We cannot simply use it however we like, it just doesn’t work like that. It is the power of the Holy Spirit working through, leading,  guiding, and strengthening us not for our own desires, but for the desires of God. And so the question is how do we respond?  If you have not yet received this power of the Holy Spirit through baptism, then the first step in to respond to that gentle push God is giving you to enter into eternal covenant with him just as thousands did on that day of Pentecost. If you have already received the power of the Spirit through baptism then we must ask ourselves what are we doing with that precious trust, that amazing power given to us. If the book of Acts were written today, about this group of Apostles, how would it read? Though this church is over a hundred years old I believe our story is just beginning. I believe there are so many here who feel that power, who respect the sacred trust placed upon their lives, who want to stand up and shout to the Lord, I’ve got the Power, I’ve got the power. Now lead me Lord. Now lead us Lord.

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[1] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg.53

Is it Time? (Acts 1:1-11)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 6/1/14

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Later this week Heather and I will have been married for 8 months now, and while for many of you that’s laughably short, for me it’s amazing how quickly the time has gone since that wedding day. I mean there is so much build up for that special day; for Heather and I we had dated in college and seminary for three years even before our engagement, and finally we were engaged and yet waited another year and a half before we walked down that aisle. And that year was full of change and expectation, I started my ministry here while Heather continued school, we dreamed of when we would live together, we dreamed of our wedding day, what we would wear, what music would play, where we would get married and who would officiate. With all of that expectation,  when the day finally did come it almost didn’t feel real, and in the blink of an eye the day was over… we were married. And yet now eight months in I start to wonder about what it was that we were really anticipating. Were we anticipating the day in which were united in holy matrimony or was it the marriage itself. Because in the matter of a few hours all of the preparation we had done for that wedding was gone and past, and yet the work of marriage had truly just started. We were finally married and yet it had really only just begun.

            I mention this because in our scripture for today we find the disciples of Christ waiting and expecting what they have dreamed and hoped for all of their lives. In their scriptures, which we must remember is only the Old Testament for them at this time, they have been hearing about this Messiah who would come and return Israel to its rightful place, and here is that Messiah, this man named Jesus.  They have followed him, watched him perform miracles, and listened to him tell stories of the Kingdom of God here on Earth and so they waited.  Jesus was then arrested and crucified, and while the disciples did not understand, while their faith was shaken, they waited, waited for the arrival of this Kingdom of God. Jesus rose from the grave restoring hope to the disciples and now for forty days they have followed him and prepared for this very moment, This moment when Christ would ascend to the throne. And so in great joy and expectation the disciples ask, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"  And Christ replies, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”

            The disciples  seem to be asking the right question, all of their expectations have been waiting for this day in which Jesus Christ would reign, and when he ascends that is exactly what he does; he sits at the right hand of God the Father on the throne. So this must then be the time when the Kingdom is restored. And yet Jesus simply answers, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that Father has set by his own authority.”  Frustratingly Jesus neither gives us a simple yes or no.  At first glance it seems as though Jesus denies that this is the time of the Kingdom, and yet when we look at his reply we see that that is not the case, he simply tells us it is not for us to know the period or times set by the father.

            When we hear this we may become frustrated just like the disciples. We want to ask, has the Kingdom of God arrived on Earth or is it still to come, and the answer to this question is just as frustrating. This is not a yes or no question and yet the answer is simply yes.  Has the Kingdom of God arrived on Earth, yes!  Christ came to Earth as a human, took on our sinful and broken nature all the way to the cross, and then conquered it with his resurrection.  Freed us from our slavery to sin and death, and created with us a new covenant by water and the spirit. Christ freed us from ourselves so that we may truly follow him, and throughout his life both before and after the cross, Jesus taught us what following him would truly look like. Through all of this action Christ has created a new world order, Christ has established his Kingdom on Earth.

            And yet if we ask if the Kingdom is still to come then the answer is yes as well.  It is in fact a lot like a marriage. If after that wedding day, you ask if that couple is married then answer is of course yes.   But if you were to ask that couple if on that day their marriage was complete, well I’d hope they laugh, for it has only started. Our day of ascension is almost like that wedding day. Christ’s bodily ministry on Earth is over, he has done everything he has needed in order to establish his kingdom and now he takes his rightful place on the throne, the kingdom is established and nothing can take that away.  And yet though it is established, it is only the beginning; many years must come until it arrives in completion. How many years? Well now we are asking the disciples question, and we get the same response they did, it’s not for us to know.

            The question of how long or how soon is not what we should be focusing on. How long do I have with Heather, how long until our marriage is complete; 40, 50, 60 years, or 1 year, one month or even one day?  As humans we do not know when our lives will end, when the lives of our loved ones may end, and yet marriage it is not the  1 day or 60 years that matter, what matters is what you do with it. What matters is how we are working together to grow and strengthen our marriage each day.  And so likewise Jesus is telling us it is not for us to worry about when the Kingdom of God will come in completion. We have been the assurance that the Kingdom has been establish and nothing can change that. We have been given the hope that one day the world will be renewed and restored as the Kingdom comes in final glory and we feast at the heavenly banquet. It is not for us to worry about when, it is for us to worry about what we are doing to bring forth and build up that Kingdom in the meantime. How will we respond to the grace given to us by our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. How will we allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work through us?  How are we striving to bring forth the Kingdom of God?