02/17/2013 ~ First Sunday in Lent ~ Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13.

Distinctions

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek— all have the same Creator, rich in mercy towards those who call.” — Romans 10:12a.

If you hang around me long enough you will hear me say this— something I say all the time at Bible Study, occasionally from the pulpit and I once even said it at a Rotary meeting.  “Church has a dirty little secret.  Churches are, largely, sociologically gathered institutions, not theologically gathered institutions.”

A short way of saying this would be: like people worship with like people.  And, as I also often say, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rephrased the phenomena of like people worshiping with like people better than anyone else.  King said: “The worship hour on a Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America.”  I think it’s unlikely churches which are exclusively African American in their make up would be a part of the landscape unless sociology was a part of the picture.

All that is well and good, but what is the point of saying churches are sociologically gathered institutions?  And why do I say it with some regularity?  And what does making a statement which says churches are sociologically gathered say about the theology of church?  (Pause.)

Actually, the point of saying churches are sociologically gathered is a theological stand in one very real and crucial sense.  The point of saying it is to name it.  If you cannot name it, you will never know it’s there.  Hence, naming it is very good theology, since any good theology deals with reality.  And this sociological fact is a reality.

Indeed, the reality of this sociological fact can get in the way of a relationship with God.  But if we don’t know the sociology is there, if we cannot name it, see it, we can’t even begin to cope with the thought that this might be harmful in the context of the local community of faith.  (Pause.)

Now that having been said, let me presume you did you notice the Roman Church was in the news this week.  For the first time in 598 years a sitting Pope will abdicate.  I took a poll among the Pastors who were at the Ash Wednesday ecumenical service.  None of us wanted the job.  (Slight pause.)

I take that back.  The Rev. Ms. Nancy Hale did want to volunteer but also thought that possibility presented other and obvious complications.  (Slight pause.)

In fact, I recently said to a friend that today, as it embarks on the election of a new Pope, the Roman Church may be at the same kind of crossroads it was at in the year 1516.  1516 is, of course, the year before Martin Luther tacked 95 Thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral.  In theory, this act was the beginning of the Protestant Revolution.  In reality, the Protestant Revolution started the day after Pentecost, but that’s a whole different sermon.  I won’t go there.

So, going along with the idea that Protestant Revolution did start in 1517, there is something Americans don’t understand about the Protestant Revolution.  As one of my seminary professors said: “At least nominally, America is a Protestant country.  So we do not understand that the Protestants lost the Protestant Revolution.”

To come to the conclusion that Protestants lost the Protestant Revolution, all you have to do is look at a map of Europe 50 years after Luther tacked those 95 Thesis to the door of that cathedral.  What do you see?  You see the Roman Church held sway over more land, had more people who maintained allegiance to Rome and those lands and those people possessed much greater wealth than the Protestant areas.  They won.  But in part because of the Reformation, a whole lot of different churches now dot the landscape.

So, occasionally, I will field a question which asks ‘why are there so many churches?’  Often my response comes back to the premise I initially stated this morning: like people worship with like people.  The bottom line is we break out into tribes.

However, another but related answer as to why there are so many churches should not be that hard to figure out just based on the Biblical text.  Go to the New Testament. What do you find?  There is no unity of opinion and there certainly is nothing like “one church.”  That never existed.  That is a myth.

Let me illustrate this premise.  These are the opening words of the Gospel we have come to know as Luke.  (Quote:) “Many others have undertaken to compile a narrative, an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, exactly as those happenings were handed on to us by those who were original eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.  I too, after investigating everything carefully from the beginning, decided to set down in writing an orderly account,... so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.” [1]

Well, if we translate that into modern language, the modern vernacular, here is what it might sound like.  “Hey!  Listen!!  A couple of other dudes— too many if you ask me— have written accounts of the life of Jesus.  They got it all wrong.”

“So now, I’m going to write my version which is, of course, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  And boy, not only is my version of the story right, but are those other guys who wrote different versions of this stupid, or what?!”  (Slight pause.)  Can you say: “like people worship with like people?”  (Slight pause.)  Can you say: “differences.”  (Slight pause.)

And we find these words in the work known as Romans: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek— all have the same Creator, rich in mercy towards those who call.”  (Slight pause.)

One of my commentaries on the assigned readings for today says this (quote:) “The season of Lent always brings the church back to the basics, to issues that are bedrock and essential.  It is no time for marginal matters that linger about the periphery, but is for those topics and experiences that lie close to the heartbeat of the faith.”

“The texts of Lent force us to reflect on where we— as communities and as individuals— stand in relation to the center, and then they invite a process of self-examination, repentance, forgiveness and a new life.” [2]  (Slight pause.)

I want to unpack two words in that commentary.  First, the word ‘repentance,’ contrary to populist belief, ‘repentance’ does not mean feeling sorry.  ‘Repentance’ means turning our lives toward God.  Please note: ‘repentance’ does not means turning our lives over to the church, which is only an institution.  ‘Repentance’ is about us and God.

Second, ‘forgiveness’— forgiveness is not primarily about forgiving someone else.  Forgiveness is primarily about forgiving ourselves.  Unless we know how to live with ourselves, we will never discover how to live with others.  Unless we know how to live with ourselves, we will never discover how to live with others.

Having unpacked those words, that brings me back to the basics mentioned in the commentary.  The basic question for us in Lent, the basic question Paul is posing for us in Romans is simple.  Where do we, as communities and as individuals, stand in relation to the center?  Where do we, as communities and as individuals, stand in relation to God?  (Slight pause.)

If we stand as one people— in Paul’s words, if we stand as neither Jew nor Greek— then we stand in a relationship with God and one another.  Are we all friends?  Probably not.  We are all very different with different tastes, different backgrounds and sometimes (dare I say it?) even different sociology.

But we all can and should stand as one people, equal before God.  It is in that way, standing before God as one, that we can truly celebrate our differences and our unity.

I was reminded of that Wednesday night as we gathered for an Ash Wednesday Service.  Pastors and members of the United Church of Christ, the First Baptist Church, Christ Lutheran Church, the Broad Street United Methodist Church and Emmanuel Episcopal Church stood as one before God in worship.

Did we, as we gathered, have differences?  Yes.  It is likely we would agree on everything?  No.  But did we stand as one before God?  Yes.  We worshiped God together, as one.  (Slight pause.)

So, what is the season of Lent about?  It is about who we are and identifying who we are.  It is about recognizing who our neighbor really is and understanding we are not members of separate tribes.

It is about who God is— and when I think about it: God who is, and trying to wrestle with that— who God is and trying to wrestle with that.  It is about standing as one before God and being humble enough to do that.  It is, hence, about a process of self-examination, repentance, forgiveness and a new life.  Amen.

02/17/2013
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “Our thought for meditation in the bulletin today was from Joan D. Chittister, a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, an author and a speaker: ‘Lent is not a ‘penitential season.’  Lent is a ‘growing season.’ It is a reminder that we need to see this time of year but perhaps all year as a time when growing in our relationship with God and one another needs to be nurtured.”

BENEDICTION: God heals and restores.  God grants to us the grace and the talent to witness to the love God has for us.  Let us be ready as we go into the world, for we are baptized in the power of the Spirit.  And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more.  Amen.
[1]  Luke 1:1-4, Inclusive Language Version, with the reference to Theophilus omitted.

[2]  Texts for Preaching (the Electronic Version) on the commentary for this Sunday, the First Sunday in Lent, Year ‘C’.