union avenue christian church |
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Is the Church Adrift? Matthew 16:13 – 20; Ephesians 3:7 –13 Last month three generations of our family spent a week’s vacation on a beach south of Tampa, Florida, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. In the midst of joyous but frenetic days — controlled by the younger generations — my favorite sport was to take slow walks along the beach, meditating on the good life of retirement. One day as I walked I looked toward the water and there was a small sail boat silently floating with no one aboard. It was rocking gently with the waves, going nowhere. Since no one on the beach seemed to be concerned about this unattended boat, I relaxed and kept walking. But I did not take 10 steps before I had a preacher’s thought. Maybe this empty boat is a sign from God to us Christians. Could it be a sign that the Church today is adrift? As I continued my walk I began to recall the different metaphors for the Church used in the New Testament — the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the people of God, the community of the Holy Spirit and others. Then I recalled that the early Christians also spoke of the Church as a ship — filled with faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, carrying the people of God to the whole world and proclaiming to all the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. What a glorious metaphor, I thought. But then I stopped in my tracks, “But that boat offshore is an empty boat! It isn’t going anywhere! It’s adrift!” Then the question came to my mind that led to this sermon. What about the Church today, especially the congregations with which I am familiar? Are we adrift with little power, or passion, avoiding the costly witness we are called to make in Christ’s name? What makes the Church a spiritually dynamic community, serving the mission of God (and not the preferences of its members), gathering people of different cultures and economic situations and focused on bringing salvation to the city and the world? The first answer to that question most of you have heard hundreds of times, but we rarely talk about it. Usually we Christians want to define our faithfulness in terms of our activities, what we do. But the Christian life begins with another vision. Simply stated, that vision is this: The Church — at Union Avenue or wherever — will find its power when we become a community that truly understands and is directed by the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ — crucified and risen from the dead. Put simply, the Gospel is the startling message of God’s unconditional love for us and all people dramatically expressed in the ministry of our Savior and Redeemer. And the good news is that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Listen to the Apostle Paul’s powerful assurance given to the church in Rome. Realizing the power of sin to control our human lives and indeed the world in which we live, Paul asks the big question, “Who (or what) will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword…. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39) Whenever we get to the place in our lives that we truly believe that exclamation of the Gospel, we will become different people. Filled with that good news a congregation like Union Avenue will never become adrift — uncertain of its faith and mission, its calling and direction. You will know you have a life-changing gospel to share with your neighborhood, your city, your world. And this power comes from knowing and serving Jesus Christ. Some of you know of Henri Nouwen, the renowned Dutch Catholic theologian who in his young years came to the United States and became a tutor about spirituality to millions of folks. Those who were touched by his books and lectures have testified that his central gift was that he communicated the presence of Jesus Christ. Henri once wrote to a friend: There is a second insight from the Gospel for the community we are called to be. The church of Jesus Christ will be empowered when we identify with the poor and the disadvantaged. Surely a confession is due at this point. Whenever congregations, especially the large and prestigious ones, meet to plan their annual priorities and programs, we never hear that the poor and oppressed will be their primary focus in the coming year or decade. Surely we all need to listen again to Jesus’ first sermon which he preached at his home synagogue in Nazareth, recorded in Luke 4:16-30. He took his text from the Old Testament book of Isaiah (61:1-2) where the prophet tells of the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah describes his coming not in triumphal language but as one coming in lowly service. Then Jesus quoted Isaiah, undoubtedly referring to himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Wouldn’t that create a stir in St. Louis! What incredible good news! No church could make that a priority and remain adrift! But take note. After this proclamation Jesus closed his Bible, looked into the eyes of the congregation and said, “Today this Scripture, this prophecy has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In essence Jesus was saying, “Yes, I am the son of God, the Messiah, but I am not the kind of Messiah you are expecting. My agenda is not political or military. My agenda is to call all people to serve the poor, the oppressed, the prisoners (including those imprisoned by their sins), the blind (both physically and spiritually), and those oppressed.” Isaiah makes clear that the religious people of Nazareth did not like Jesus’ sermon. They became so angry they ran him out of town and tried to push him over a rocky cliff. Imagine, the good church folks in Nazareth ran the Savior of the world out of their town, out of their church, their homes and lives. They wanted nothing to do with a preacher who told them to be fully identified with the poor — with losers. My friend, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has said with his voice and with his life: “The Church must be ever ready to wash the feet of the poor, to be a serving Church not a triumphalist Church, biased in favor of the powerless to be their voice, to live in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, the marginalized, and yes, preaching the Gospel of reconciliation but first working for justice. There can never be real reconciliation without justice.” (Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches, London: Collins, 1984, p. 86) We Disciples of Christ have also had someone who has lived her life in tune with Jesus’ priority for the poor. The Rev. Mildred Slack, a former seminary student of mine and Disciples of Christ minister who retires this week, has spent the last 35 years working among the poor in St. Louis. (You may have seen the article about her in Saturday’s Post-Dispatch). Millie has been the executive director of the Isaiah 58 Ministries, an ecumenical ministry that seeks to meet the material, spiritual and social needs of the poor in St.Louis. And those servants of Christ do it with less money than is needed. Millie Slack is truly the Mother Teresa of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She is a unique apostle who answered Jesus’ call to care for the poor. Finally, the Church will find its true vocation, its power to reconcile a divided world, when it proclaims in its message and its life the visible unity Christ has given among all churches, races, and cultures in the world. We Disciples of Christ are not a creedal church, but we are called to confess our faith whenever we gather in worship. I wish that each Sunday we could say one line from the historic Nicene Creed, formulated by a church council in 325 A.D. It confesses: “We believe in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” In saying those words time and time again we would be affirming what our Disciples forefathers and mothers were confessing on the American frontier in the 19th century: the Church of Jesus Christ is one and the divisions among Christians is “a horrid evil.” We would be fulfilling the prayer of our Lord that all of his followers “may be one.” The Union Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a distinguished congregation with an illustrious history and promising future. But nothing you do in Christ’s name reflects the Gospel more than your leadership — past, present, and future — in bringing visible church unity among the divided churches in this country. And you have a special witness to this unity in your midst. I trust it is widely known and celebrated at Union Avenue that your senior minister, Dr. Suzanne Webb, is one of the leading ecumenists among the Disciples of Christ and all churches in American Christianity. Among her many key ecumenical roles she is the president of Churches Uniting in Christ, a movement working to unite with diversity nine major communions across the U.S. Surely this yearning for reconciliation among these churches is a sign that we intend to fulfill the prayer of our Lord “that they may all be one.” (John 17) And that prayer is an sign that the church in which you participate is not adrift. Is the Church adrift? I pray not, but I realize that often it is. Let us live with the hope that the people of God in this city and around the world move with the winds of God, the God of a redeeming Gospel, the God who loves especially the poor, the God who reconciles and unites. Faithfulness to the God of Jesus Christ will transform this congregation, this city and our whole world. PC The Reverend Dr. Paul A. Crow, Jr., often called the dean of American ecumenism, served as the first full-time general secretary of the Consultation on Church Union, a nine-denomination ecumenical body begun in 1960. Dr. Crow's work influenced the way Christians have worked, studied, worshipped and grew toward unity throughout the world. Dr. Crow is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). |
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