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Based on the Scripture readings: |
2007 September 9 |
Choosing ChurchTwenty years ago I was in Florence, Italy looking for a church. This is a true story, and it has something to do with the news this summer and us this fall, but I have to look backward a bit to go forward. In 1986 my sister was living in Rome for awhile, and I went over to travel with her, and we journeyed up to Florence, where a friend of a friend led the local Episcopal church. But this was in the years before the Internet and even decent phone service, so I had to do some old-fashioned legwork to find him. I began by looking in the yellow pages under "churches," but there was no mention of his parish, nor was it listed by name in the white pages. I went to a city directory and examined the church listings but still found nothing, even though I knew this was a pretty big place. I tried an information kiosk, asked for help at a phone center, and still could find nothing about St. James Church. Finally, in a small hotel catering to Americans, I found a listing of houses of worship, so I went to find my friend, Sam Hartman. At his home, I told him this story, since his parish was centrally located and 120 years old, and I asked why it was so hard to find? "Ah," he replied. "It's simple. You were looking in the wrong places. It Italy there is the Church and its churches, and there are altra-culti. These are other cults. You had to look us up there. We're a cult." On July 10th this summer, the new Bishop of Rome said that there is still one true Church in the world, and everyone else is, in his term, intrinsically defective. Here in 2007, Protestants --  Now there was a lot of ink spilled over this during the summer and a certain amount of hand-wringing and Christian family relationship counseling to be done, but I think that my favorite response came in an editorial in the Christian Century. It offered the philosophical equivalent of that somewhat less-than-articulate, one-word summary made popular by Homer Simpson, duh, and here is what the editorial said:
To me, that is a wonderful place to begin our fall, our reunion and re-covenant: with a reminder of the blessings in our midst, the challenging call of God, and the joys of relationship with others who seek to follow one God. To me, our whole faith starts with this. We've just heard two amazing scriptures: one of them a central text in our history and the other an entire book of the Bible. One of them comes near the end, the climax of two generations of travel and struggle to be free from the slavery of Egypt, and the other comments on freedom and slavery in the new faith that follows Jesus. Both of them are about intentionality. Both of them are about choice. Both of them look forward. Both of them ask us to choose the ways of freedom and new life while at the very same time saying that there is no such thing as freedom which does not include covenant, obedience to God and community, Walter Brueggeman says that the followers of Moses who were at the border of Israel were still in the midst of dangerous distraction. Two generations away from the habits of slavery and the comforts of empire, they were literally in the midst of what he calls "Canaanite technological manipulation and consumer indulgence." And he's talking thirty-five hundred years ago. At any rate, the heart of God and the voice of God knows that these free people may yet be found, as the Bible says, to worship other gods or to turn away their hearts from Yahweh. So, says Brueggeman, God takes initiative and asks for our intentionality. He adds, intentionality is running risks for the sake of the future. Behold, I have set before you this day life and death, good and evil, blessing and curse. Sounds old-fashioned, but is it hard to understand? Two roads diverged in the wood. I heard a little voice in my head. I remembered my mother's advice. Life and death stand before us: blessing or curse, and God does not push us one way or the other or save us the pressure of deciding but says if you want life, choose life, as you can. And so says Paul to Philemon over a thousand years later. We followers of Christ are free, he says. We've gone from slave to sibling, if you will. Again to quote Brueggeman, business as usual is the way to shriveled life. But God in Christ calls us to abundance. One of my professors, Letty Russell, a premier feminist theologian of our generation, died this summer after a full life. She wrote many things, among them this simple call to life to our community. She said, "The role of the church is to overcome the fear of difference and break the bars that keep us apart." You have come to look for a church. A cult will not satisfy you. But this year, here, with God's grace and scripture's guidance as well as the spirit that lives in a community thinking and praying together, we will address the fears of our day and break the prisons that restrict us. This year, here, we will consistently seek ways to choose life, beyond the political limitations of that gracious Biblical phrase. This year, here, we will affirm our catholic, inclusive spirit and rejoice in our diverse heritage and our common hope. We will struggle with Canaanite manipulation and indulgence, and we will risk something for the sake of the future. We will share our freedom in commitment to one another, to our neighbor, and to God. We are standing at the boundary of a promise and a presence. And God is calling us in, calling us together, calling us to life. I look forward, always forward, to a great year as Christ's church. Amen. http://www.nhcc.net/sermons/Sermon20070909.htm |
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