SERMON ~ 02/03/2013 ~ Imperfect Knowledge

02/03/2013 ~ Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Known in Some Traditions as the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30 ~ COMMUNION SUNDAY.

Imperfect Knowledge

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and has the power to endure all things.  Love never ends.” — 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a.

I need to start today’s comments with a question.  (Slight pause.)  What does it meant to be a Christian?  (Slight pause.)

Does being a Christian mean one assents to a set of beliefs or precepts? (Slight pause.)  I’ll come back to that.  (Slight pause.)

I have mentioned dozens of times that my late mother joined a convent— she was a nun— but dropped out of the order before taking her final vows.  I’ve also mentioned my late father taught at a Jesuit High School for the vast majority of his working life.

While it might, therefore, seem like I went into the family business, I think a major effect of this was the friendships I made.  You see, clergy— especially Jesuits— were my friends when I was growing up.  Indeed, I remember when I was 18 or 19 a Jesuit friend invited me and a couple of my friends to dinner at a rectory in Greenwich Village to meet a friend of his.

That friend was the activist, Philip Berrigan.  Philip and his more famous brother Dan got on the FBI 10 most wanted list for involvement with the peace movement.

They were both prosecuted for being among the so called Catonsville Nine and the so called Baltimore Four.  One James Mengel, a U.C.C. pastor, was a part of the Baltimore Four.  Perhaps my background is closer to home than it might seem on the surface.  (Slight pause.)

So, what does it meant to be a Christian?  Does it mean one assents to a set of beliefs?  (Slight pause.)

Recent polls say 20 percent of Americans make a claim to be “spiritual but not religious.”  Reverend Lillian Daniel, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Glen Ellyn, a Chicago suburb, has published a book on the topic.  This the title: When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church.

People tell you they find God in sunsets, she says, but anyone can find God in a sunset.  Finding God in the flawed human community and in a tradition bigger than you with people who may not reflect God back to you in your own image— that’s remarkable.

An equal opportunity critic, Daniel also levels criticism at church members, like those who say a quarterback has been blessed by God for scoring a winning touchdown.  Surely Christians are praying just as hard on other football teams.  Did God ignore them?  Or did they just pray the wrong way?

There are also Christians who do disgusting things like burn copies of the Qur’an.  These behaviors should be an embarrassment to people of faith, says Daniel.  (Slight pause.)

What does it meant to be a Christian?  Does it mean one assents to a set of beliefs?  (Slight pause.)

A colleague recently said when the Nicene Creed was issued— and in some ways the Nicene Creed is a list of beliefs— when the Nicene Creed was issued, that started the downfall Christianity.  People assented to that list, said my friend, and it was the beginning of the end for Christianity.

I suggested that is not at all what happened at the Council of Nicaea.  You see, thinking of the Creed as a list of beliefs did not happen until about thirteen centuries after it was written— around the time of the Enlightenment.  So, what did the Creed mean when it was written if it is not a list of beliefs?

The Latin word we translate as ‘I believe,’ credo, does not mean a list of intellectual beliefs.  Credo means something to which I give my heart.  (Slight pause.)

Another colleague recently said he wished the age of dogma would give way to the age of dialogue, discussion.  Discussion, after all, rests on mutual respect for diverse opinions and those who hold them.  Discussion means reserving the right to be wrong.

However, we live in an era when opinions do not seem to allow for space or allow for respect.  Positions taken are the end of discussion.  And facts are ignored when they do not conform to opinion.  There are some who even like this world of easy absolutes, a world which permits no nuance, no compromise, no differences, a world of dogma.  (Slight pause.)

So, what does it meant to be a Christian?  Does it mean one assents to a set of beliefs?  And are those beliefs narrow?  (Slight pause.)

Now, there is a difference between dogma and doctrine.  Dogma is either what you decide you will believe and that you will allow for nothing else and/or Dogma is what someone else decides will be believed and you buy into it, allowing for nothing else.

Doctrine, on the other hand, is an explanation of belief.  Therefore, doctrine relates back to the Latin credo.  Doctrine is something to which we might give our heart, something we can love, especially since it is our explanation.

And I think, for Paul, not belief but love is the prime issue.  That is because, for Paul, what we believe is encompassed by and in a relationship with God.  So, he talks about love.  And love is not about a list of beliefs.

Indeed, how does Paul talk about love?  By making the obvious argument: knowledge is imperfect.  Or, in modern terms, why do we insult someone when we say they are a ‘Know It All?’  We inherently recognize, as did Paul, that knowledge is imperfect, incomplete.

But Paul’s position also states that, because knowledge is imperfect, incomplete, so too it is with love.  Love is imperfect, incomplete, flawed.

But, having said that, Paul also insists love can be perfect, can be complete.  How?  Again, in today’s terms, what Paul says is that we humans are and need to see ourselves as beings of sacred worth— beings of sacred worth.

If we see ourselves beings of sacred worth, then love can be imperfect even as we seek the perfect.  How?  God, who is perfect, loves us.  God sees us as beings of sacred worth, despite imperfection, despite our flaws.  And God wants to be in covenant with us.

Indeed, this is how Paul restates the ancient covenant God has made with humanity (quote):  “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and has the power to endure all things.  Love never ends.”  (Slight pause.)

So, what does it meant to be a Christian?  Does it mean one assents to a set of beliefs?  No.  It means one assents to love.  Amen.

02/03/2013
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: “There is a story that goes around about a fairly local personality, Carl Sagan.  He lived just over in Ithaca.  The story may well be apocryphal, but it’s the story that goes around.  He was a fairly well known agnostic and he and a colleague were in a discussion and he offered all kind of proof to his colleague that God did not exist.  And then his colleague said, ‘So, Carol, does love exist?’  And he because a little flustered.  His colleague said, ‘Can’t prove that, either, can you?’”

BENEDICTION: Through God’s grace, by being attentive to God’s will, our deeds and our words will change our world for we will discover ways to proclaim release from the bondage of narrowness.  Let us seek the God of Joy whose wisdom is our God.   Let us go in peace to love and serve God.  Amen.