Christ Will Build the Church

Today we commemorate the Confession of Peter, and begin a week set apart to call us into prayer for Unity of the Church. And we sit on the eve of the day when we remember the life and witness of Martin Luther King Jr. who called us to embrace the beloved community. At the center of it all- building and unifying and living as Christ’s church question that we must encounter is how we confess, or make known God’s relationship with it all.

We all know the questions- How does the church survive? How can we work together with people differing from us? And lots of other questions that all tend to start with “How can we?”  

This is our question.

Jesus has brought the disciples to Caesarea Philippi, at the heart of places where people do not worship God. They worship the imperial cult, and mythological gods and animals. They do not worship the God of Israel. Yet there in that place, he asks, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And the disciples give the answers of their people, “Some say John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets.”  But no one in Caesarea Philippi was thinking any of that. Those are insider answers.

Then Jesus asks “who do YOU say that I am?” And no one answered at first. But that is the real question. And it’s not really a test, it’s an invitation. “Who do you say I am” drives deeper to what is needed. Finally Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” Words that just tumbled out. Maybe you’ve had that moment where words just happened and you’re not sure how.

Then Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

Jesus identity is made known. He is the Messiah and son of God and Peter didn’t figure it out on his own. “I am the Son of God and you are Peter. And on this rock, on the truth of who I am, I will build my church.” A church so strong even the gates of hell won’t prevail against it.

The foundation of life together as church is Christ.

Who Jesus is and what God’s purpose is will be revealed in him- God saves people. And Christ is the rock. We hear about the rock in Corinthians too as Paul tells us that the rock was with the people of Israel.

And the rock was Christ. The rock’s presence didn’t mean that they lived a golden age where life became perfect. There was no immunity from challenge or greater testing not common to all. But… God is faithful and you won’t be tested beyond your strength. Your strength will come from God who provides the way.

The sustainer of the people together is Christ.

Always. So flee from whatever else you think it’s about.

Including thinking you are the rock. Or that you have to be the rock. Or that some really amazing person is the rock. Or the right program is the rock upon which to build the church. Or that we should worry about what others are doing and criticize their living of faith and then feeling good is the rock. No.

Periodically I run into people who tell me about a connection to this church- the one we’re sitting in today. They’ll tell me how great it was coming to teen dances here, or the Scout troop, or going on bus trips, or being in the ladies circle, or eating great meals. The theory as many people ponder how to build or rebuild this church or even maintain the building was and is…If we just get them in the door they’ll see. Jesus will just “happen.” If we just have the right combination of things it will build that church. That will be our salvation.

Here’s the problem. While no one intended it, all those people I’ve met- when they got beyond the age of the teen dance, or the bus trip, or whatever else was the draw, there was no rock. Frankly sometimes this is a great sadness to me because when rough times happen, or death occurs, there is such great fear. A fear is that none of it was saving. The institution of the church rolled on but what it revealed was often more about us than anything else. And no one really meant that to happen but often it did.

Now as ever it is important to hear that the rock upon which the church is built, and in which we all move and are embraced is in Jesus. And our purpose as this generation of disciples is to tell this story and reveal this God and remember that though we’re not sure, let God be the power and strength nothing can overcome.

Peter’s confession is important for what it reveals to us not of him, but what it reveals of God’s love and grace and desire for salvation seen in Jesus Christ. Salvation is in no other.

But just speaking the words and listing the names or memorizing them won’t build the faith God gives. It takes community living it. Peter began with what God revealed but then God moved him from blurting out words to being drawn into what the name does. Jesus saves. It’s not about his words, or actions, and whether he lives up to them, which he doesn’t a lot of the time.  Nor do we. What deepens faith is those moments when we look and say it clearly came from God. God made it so. Meant to be shared.  In a proper confession of faith the subject is God. Salvation is in no other- for us and our world and God’s church.

God wants to liberate us from the notion that we are our own saviors, or that we are the saviors or defenders of the church. There is no gospel if the center is only us. But still we are invited to encounter and follow Christ and that is not only good news, it invites us all into that question- who do you say God is? Where do we as people with real problems encounter God at work our real lives?

So what is your confession? Your statement of faith?

For a year now I’ve been asking that-where you have seen God? I want to share where Donna and I met God this past week. In a woman we met on the street in front of the office. She approached in tears asking where 423 Windsor was. I pointed and she became sadder. Because she was looking for the NA meeting, believing it was here. The empty building told her it was not. For some reason the information was not updated. She was despondent because she was not just looking for a meeting, she had called the hotline. That’s what you do when you are desperate. She had the look of someone standing at the gates of hell. And we did not have what she needed. She needed the meeting to be here-and it was not. She needed to get to that meeting right now and she could not. So she brushed me aside,  crying and broken. But then she stopped walking and disintegrated.

We urged her to come inside in the warm and let’s find out where you need to be and when. Slowly she moved with us to the office and we began to talk and look for the right information. And we couldn’t find it.

While Donna looked, I stayed with her and the story came falling out of her mouth of her struggle. And we still couldn’t get an answer. No one answered the phone where we were calling. the information she had was wrong and it would seem we had nothing to give. And then a paper fell out of the phone book with what we needed. And there was more than one meeting to help her hold on. But the real Jesus moment came when I asked her if she wanted to pray and she latched onto me in the fiercest, tightest life seeking hug so tight I ended up literally praying in her ear. And then she began to relax.

Before she left she spoke of being overwhelmed and frustrated and then she said, “but you wouldn’t let me go, you were in my face calling me to not give up.” I didn’t remember it like that. But she wasn’t seeing me really-God was speaking salvation to her. Inviting her.

She came back 5 days later- just to give share a joyful hug and to thank us for helping her get to that wholeness and restoration and unity. Because in truth her family had told her to do 60 in 60 or they were done. She looked like a totally different person as she shared with me her confession of faith of being reconnected to that rock of Christ. You brought me to Jesus.

Salvation is in no other. And we shared something about Jesus deeper than just words, something shared, drawn together as the body of Christ. Not so she would be a member of Holy Spirit. Our mission is not about getting the right people or programs but simply proclaiming that Jesus Christ is salvation. And helping ourselves and others find that rock through God’s power.

It’s not about how will we, but how does God bring grace and power that saves.

Now your name is not Peter- it’s Bill or Terry or Jane, but you’ve seen it, these moments somehow.

Where have you seen God’s grace and salvation come to you? What confession would you write?

Let’s start sharing that story together- the story of Jesus as our rock and salvation- and Christ will build the church.

Lean Out

“Faith”- there’s a word that is used a lot, but is the subject of what Paul would call the “wrong gospel” just as often as it is used helpfully. For Paul, the “wrong gospel” was that there were certain rules and rituals the early church insisted upon in order for someone to be allowed to be even be in the room for worship- circumcision for men, rules about food and other things. And he reminded that those considerations were not at all about faith or God’s grace. But there are other ways we as Christians can take up the “wrong gospel.” One comes from a misreading of the gospel today. The centurion is a man of faith. His slave is dying and he believes Jesus can heal him. And Jesus praises him for his faith. “Never have I seen such faith!” But one of the expressions we can hear today is “you just have to have more faith” as though if our faith were stronger our lives would be different or better. That is the wrong gospel. It’s another way of focusing on ourselves. Another equally disturbing message comes from beyond the church, but can be one we take up as well. It is demonstrated in the recent story about Sheryl Sandberg, the CEO of Facebook who has written a book to inspire women who want to be successful in business, entitled “Lean In.” In response to the fact that many women still find it difficult to navigate the corporate ladder, Sandberg encourages them to be ambitious and grab power, to “lean in” to situations because she says” No one listens to the person on the edge of the room.” You have to lean in. That is a message that sometimes makes itself into our world as we wonder about the present and future of our church and where the people are. But “lean in” is not good news. In fact, I would suggest that our lessons from Scripture would suggest exactly the opposite about what it takes to be “in the room,” How God acts and how we should respond. God leans out.

Let’s take a trip back to our Old Testament lessons where Solomon has gathered the people of Israel for the dedication of the new temple. Thirteen years in the making, and a symbol of God’s glory. A place God would be said to be found, and God’s name would be praised and glorified. Massive wood carvings, lots of gleaming bronze and gold and silver. After all of the sacred objects were placed in the room, Solomon said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel. You have fulfilled the promises you made to my father, King David, and to our people. There is NO ONE like you. And I have built a magnificent temple for YOU.”  The same attention to beauty and detail has gone into the magnificent cathedrals around the world. And our own worship space is known for its beauty. We built this for you, God. But the real point is that it is a place where we come to encounter God. God who comes to us.

Meanwhile, back to Solomon. He begins to pray, for a L-O-O-O-ON-G time. Talking about the promises God had made and asking God in each and every circumstance to hear the prayers of God’s people in this place. Our lectionary skips these verses, about twenty of them. But what is being said there is important. Here is what we miss. “Lord, God of Israel- there is no God like you anywhere. You keep your promises of love. Let what you promised my father be true…   I know that no building can contain you, no space can contain you. Lord God, hear my prayer.

And when your people come to this place to pray – hear their prayer.

When they have wronged someone and they come to be forgiven-hear their prayer. When enemies have defeated them, hear their prayer. When there is a famine and they hunger, hear their prayer.

When they have judged others wrongly, hear their prayer. Hear them, forgive them and act- be God with your people. In this place. Hear our prayers. And just about when people have stopped listening,  at the end, he shifts-

“Oh, and God? About the foreigner…”We’re praying for people who are not us, and not here? “When someone who is not your chosen people prays, someone who cannot even be in the room, but turns toward this place, toward you, because they have heard your name? Hear their prayers too. When people turn to you God, no matter where, hear them. So all may know your power and your name. This is unexpected. This prayer is about more that Solomon and the people of Israel- it is leaning and stretching out into a broader vision of how God acts and who God is. This is faith. Stretching beyond what seems supportable by our system. Because of who we sense God is and where and how God will act.

This is where we find the centurion today, a man who is not at the edge of the room, he is not even in the field of vision. He is wealthy and powerful, and he can lean in because of these things. The leaders of the synagogue know well that he built their synagogue. They owe him. And as a leader of an army unit of the government oppressing them he’s in charge. And this is how the leaders respond- that Jesus should do as the centurion asks because of these things. Not because of his faith. But at the same time, the centurion is also the foreigner, not even in the room. In fact he and Jesus never meet directly. He is the foreigner who turns toward God in prayer because he has heard of Jesus’ name. Hear my prayer. And the centurion is the one who gets who Jesus is and grasps God’s power. While the leaders are saying he is worthy, he sends messengers to say – I am NOT worthy. But I believe in who you are and what you can do. He realizes that his own power cannot control death, and that Jesus is the only one who can.  In faith he turns.

And Jesus responds by leaning out. This is how God acts. God of the outstretched arm. God who came in the person of Jesus to enter our world to reach out. And to show God’s power and God’s love. Because it’s not about us trying to lean in, or prove we are worthy. It’s about God leaning out. And we who have received the love and grace of God, then continue this work and this movement. Leaning out in faith even when it seems to be beyond what our world says our systems can support.

Faith it’s not about our beautiful building, or focusing upon whether people are doing the right things to be in the room. And it’s not about hoping people will lean in so then we can meet them. The age old  question has become- “we’re here, why aren’t they?” I think God, is calling to us in faith with a different question-“ they’re there, why aren’t you?” It’s scary, and gets us beyond our comfort zone. But this is the place of faith.

Calling us beyond this place, to look and to listen for all of the people who are longing for forgiveness, and healing, and an outstretched arm and love. Who have heard God’s name but are not in the room. To lean out. Lean out, reaching to others- and we’ll meet God together there.

 

Come-Be at Home Together

Grace and peace to you, my sisters and brothers in Christ, and I bring you greetings from Holy Spirit Lutheran, your fellow members of the Reading Lutheran Parish at 4^th and Windsor. My name is Pastor Carolyn and the first thing I want to share with you is that I am not “from here.” In fact we were joking before worship as someone asked me that exact question. It’s one of the ways we all start conversation with someone new. Are you “from here?” I am not. Most obviously because I am not your pastor here at Nativity. And in fact I have only been at Holy Spirit for 21 months. But I am also not from Reading, or even Berks County. And though I came here from Lancaster County, I learned that even though I lived there for 24 years that is not quite long enough to be from there either. In fact I have lived in three different states, and at about 15 addresses, and to be honest I am not sure where I would say I am from. All of our readings today lift up some aspect of the concept of “home.” For almost two years now, I can tell you that I consider Reading to be my home. We have been settling in to a new house, and a new neighborhood and settling in at the church, and as this has been happening in this part of our journey together, I am reminded of a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. He was speaking to a group of high school students over 50 years ago as they were about to embark on the next part of their journeys, and trying to figure out how they fit into a changing world, and he said, “ We may all have come here on different ships, but we are in the same boat now. “  We are in the same boat now.

I think that not only could be said about our journeys, but also about the part of the Book of Acts we are catching up with today which begins, ironically with a ship story and a journey. Paul and his companions have been traveling around the Mediterranean, and while they have some ideas where they want to go, sometimes God redirects them. Traveling into parts of the world where seaports draw together people from lots of different places, and a mixing of ideas as well as trade. Many people drawn to a particular place from a variety of backgrounds and on journeys. The journey of the earliest followers continuing almost as incredibly as it began, when Jesus said, “Come, follow me.” Now in this chapter, Paul has a dream of a man saying, “Come, help us.” And on the strength of that alone, and very little concrete stuff, they embark upon a several days’ journey. And led by the Spirit, they encounter Lydia and her household and they baptize them.

And in baptism, though they have come on different ships, they are in the same boat now. And so it is for us. We are in the same boat, together with Christ in the power and work of the cross and in our baptism. Even your architecture reminds you- if you look up at those exposed beams that curve like the upended shape of a ship. We are in the boat together. And we as the churches of the Reading Lutheran Parish have been partnering together for a very long time. Recently the leaders of the churches here in the city met to ask the question where God is sending us together now? How can we continue to provide a strong Lutheran witness now? What ministries for the sake of the gospel should we undertake? As a part of that discernment, we are now creating a separate nonprofit group called Reading Lutheran Parish which will allow us to more effectively work together in shared ministries in addition to the ministries we undertake as individual congregations. It is another step in the journey. And in some ways this is already what we do. In fact, Nativity already plays a vital role in a ministry of Holy Spirit. Some of you may know, but others may not. Holy Spirit runs an afterschool program called the Doves Nest, three days a week during the school year in which we provide a meal afterschool, as well as homework and literacy tutoring, and other activities. Most of our food comes from the Food Bank, but on occasion we suspend that food because a yummy meal is provided by some of you here at Nativity. We always look forward to it and it is a real blessing! I want to share my thanks for your hospitality and your gift to others for the sake of the gospel. Everyone knows a home-cooked meal is best!

And today we are sharing in this Pastor Exchange with a chance to worship and share together. And I thank you for your hospitality to me today- pretty much a stranger-graciously receiving me, and providing assistance, a drink of cool water, and directions to the bathroom. Simple but gracious hospitality.  We really are in the boat together.

But as easily as I can say that, and it sounds wonderful, the truth is that sometimes we don’t want to be in the boat together. If you have ever been on the “too long vacation” or had the guests that stayed too long, you know. We know who we are supposed to be, but by nature we want our own space. Even Paul feels that way- Lydia’s invitation was not welcomed at first. Paul and his companions were kind of like, “No, that’s OK.” But she insisted. Just as the Spirit at work in Paul drives him to these new places, at the same time the Spirit at work in Lydia brings this surge of hospitality as she invites them to Come- Come to my house. And finally they give in.

And here is where I think that the Book of Acts gives us some useful lessons for our journey. Lydia’s invitation is more than “come to my house.” She is speaking about relationship. She’s saying- Come be at home.  In baptism we are in a new relationship. She is living that belief. Once my family and I were on one of those “too long” vacations to Prince Edward Island. Partway through we stayed at a bed and breakfast in farm country. And the owner had offered to make us dinner, pointing out that places to eat were few and far between. We reluctantly decided to say yes, and expected a simple meal. But he went out of his way- going to the dock for a bushel of fresh mussels, and to the next farm over for fresh dug potatoes, and to another friend for fresh wild blueberries to make a blueberry crisp. It was overwhelming hospitality for the couple days. But by the time we left we had this sense of belonging. We were changed. It felt like home.

Lydia’s hospitality to basically total strangers is an invitation to be “at home” together. It is a deepening of relationship through the Spirit. In baptism they and we are on a journey, but at the same time we are invited and empowered by the Spirit to be “at home” together. In Christ and with each other. It is a deeper understanding of “home.”  We who believe that Christ is with us, are empowered to live into the notion that while we are on a journey, we are at home because “home” is wherever God calls us and wherever God finds us. *

As we continue on together as the Reading Lutheran Parish and in our congregations, I pray that God will continue to draw us deeper into the notion of being “at home” in Christ together. AMEN.

* Thanks to Dr Kristin Johnston Largen for her work on the concept of "home" and being at home in the world published in the Spring 2013 Seminary Ridge Review of Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary!

 

Ref-lectionary thoughts-Messengers

God's messengers are a quirky bunch. In this week's lectionary readings, we see Amos, who is as stunned as we are that he is to be God's messenger. "I prune trees, and play in the dirt.I am not anyone of consequence or obvious skill, no matter what scale you use to evaluate me." Yet he was called by God to be a messenger, and to tell others in power, to how to prune away what was not life-giving and how to nurture and grow that straighter, stronger tree. The tree which could sustain all living things perhaps. The most effective pruning is what allows a tree to survive, to avoid blight and disease, or collapse. Pruning takes a good eye, and a strong hand to make a clean cut. A sloppy cut can actually do even more harm instead of the good intended. Pruning seems counterintuitive- why would cutting back something thriving lead to better growth? Pruning takes being deliberate, slow thinking before acting, to discern what should grow. Amos told things that the people needed to hear, but hard to imagine we would listen if God sent a landscaper to tell us today.
Then there is Paul in our epistle. How could someone who revelled and excelled in prosecutorial incisiveness be a messenger for the Jesus message? And to top it off, some historians talk about Paul as being slight of build, and not all that great as a public speaker. How could a guy with "short man syndrome" be the point person for a message? Yet what better person to have dogged persistence is "prosecuting" the case for Jesus? He was a person who was figuratively pruned and re-oriented who could tell others of the miraculous experience of it all. What greater example than the total role reversal of Paul? And in the end, we do not revere him for his public speaking anyway, but for the marvelous weaving of ideas and arguments in his writings. And we don't know what his thorn is, but what if it was something that would make us not want to look at him or be in his company? What if he had Tourette's syndrome, for example? How likely is it that in our media saturated world today, a short guy with a whiny voice and some off-putting feature, who is better in print, would be a person we would be drawn to as God's messenger?
And we can't overlook John the Baptizer. Everything we are told leads us to believe that John may well be the subject of a mental health commitment hearing today. He seemed to lack a good sense of self-care. He lived beyond civilization, eating bugs, and gleaning, eschewing all conventions when it came to clothing. Engaging in what may have seemed like rants in the wilderness rather than speeches. Thinking outside the box in every way- telling people to come to the river, not the temple for purification. Encourgaing people to engage in an exodus back into the wilderness and away from their conventions. Challenging people to radically re-orient- and living out this radical re-orientation in every way. Yet not content to be radical in the wilderness alone, but challenging others to make clear the path and to strip away the things that were in the way of right being. Would we listen to a John today or would we try to make him the subject of reality TV, or a viral video?
As I look at each of these messengers, they are not carefully packaged, media savvy folks. Each of them in their time are not obvious PR men for a message. Yet each of them embodies their message. And there is a thread in their message- we as humans so often continue to add new practices, new requirements, and trappings to a simple message. Though we all profess to yearn for the simple life, we are incapable of being sustained in it. When the commandments were given, the people were told that they should neither add to nor take away from God's commands.
Yet we do. And time and again, we need a reminder to prune, to reorient, even to reverse. As I think about Amos, Paul and John, I wonder what it would have been like to be in their midst. I wonder how much easier it is to look back with that 20/20 hindsight and sit in judgment of others then who heard them, and their lack of response to the messenger. And then I wonder whether there is a messenger in our midst that I am ignoring because he or she doesn't meet the criteria of someone I should listen to, someone equally foolish to be chosen, whom God has selected for all of the right reasons. But while I ponder this I continue to be amazed that we are all given unique qualities that in a given time and context God can and will use. And maybe while there are the occasional figures larger than life who are messengers, it would be better to remember that each of us is necessary and integral in ways we only sometimes realize. In between the big moments of the message are all of the little echoes that can be spoken through each of our lives if we stop jamming The Messenger who created us all for just such work.

Forgiven, Forgotten

Today is the commemoration of the Conversion of Paul. While I often relate to the impetuous outspoken nature of Peter, I can just as easily relate to Paul. Saul, a man of strong, even zealous convictions, pursuing his own path with a slavish fervor. Literally stopped in his tracks by God, renamed and redirected. Upon his conversion, what must have gone through Paul's mind? For starters, "What have I done?!" As I contemplate the range and depth of perhaps even visceral emotion that must have occurred, it would be easy to focus on that aspect of Paul's story, and bind ourselves to it. In each of us, there are moments where we have sensed a collosal mistake. But the message instead is not so much about who Paul was, but who God IS. And so after the " what have I done" moment, I believe there must have been a moment of liberation for Paul.
But then reality comes hurtling back. Think about the followers of Jesus, and what they must have thought. There would be Paul, amidst the murmuring comments of others, the doubt of his sincerity, the anger and hurt over his past. The weight of not only his own recognition, but the response of the followers that did not wish to embrace him, trust him, see him as a fellow brother in Christ. I think about in our own congregations the divisions that can threaten to tear our community apart when we focus more on the "Saul" in someone, than the God in our midst.
"You want me to do what?"
I urge you to read the post of Eric at Heart of a Pastor where he quotes a great story from Brennan Manning's Ragamuffin Gospel. Forgiveness is more than accepting our apology, it is about forgetting our sins. For Paul, for you, for me.
How easy is it for us to grasp that unending love? To live that love? For me, it is pretty hard. But we are freed by a God who loves and forgives and forgets anyway.

Freed from the shackles may we be inspired to go out and proclaim that message of grace, mercy and forgiveness to those desperate to hear this good news we know. And to live it in our lives. And may we trust in that message of forgiveness for ourselves.
May we heed the words of the great Gerhard Forde, who in The Preached God:Proclamation in Word and Sacrament urged his listeners, newly called pastors, by bestowing the gospel message:

"Remember above all, that the promise of the Father, the power from on high is, above all, the power of forgiveness. Don’t forget to claim that also for yourself. You are not called to carry the world on your back. You are not called to be religious megalomaniacs, gurus or whatever. You are witnesses. You see, there is a real good news here for you, too. You aren’t called to do it all. Just to bear witness. God will take it from there. You will be clothed with power from on high. Speak that word of forgiveness! Preach it!"

And may we allow that message of forgiveness to trickle down into the deepest recesses of our soul. And to remember that no matter who we have been, God IS.
Enjoy this great song from Casting Crowns.