Why is a Church?
a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Tim W. Jensen
at the Second Congregation Meeting House on Nantucket Island
Sunday November 4th, 2001
***
[extemporaneous introduction]
I also want to thank David Bartsch for stepping up and filling in for me up here last Sunday. I am always especially gratified when a member of the congregation is willing to fill the pulpit on a Sunday morning, because, if nothing else, at least I know that afterwards there will be one more person in the church who truly understands, intimately, that the minister really does work more than just an hour a week. So I would like to encourage any of you who think that you might also have a sermon in you to start thinking about what that sermon might be. Saint Augustine once wrote that the purpose of a sermon is “to instruct, to delight, and to inspire,” and I suspect that most everyone here has at least one message from their life experience that is worthy of a larger audience, that is capable of teaching and inspiring others in a delightful way. So think hard about what that message might be. Because someday, if you like, you may have an opportunity to share it with the rest of us.
I got home from my retreat just in time to pass out candy to the trick or treaters who came to my door on Halloween, and was delighted to see so many of them carrying UNICEF boxes as well as their own bags of goodies; it inspired me to dip into my wallet so that I could put a little folding money into every box, in the hope of maybe teaching some of them that it is a good thing to be generous when you yourself have been blessed with the means to be generous. As you probably know, this year’s UNICEF contributions have all been earmarked for Afghan relief, which is certainly a worthy cause in my opinion; so I was awfully disappointed to wake up the next morning only to hear the voice of John Ashcroft on the radio, declaring that the Justice Department has identified some 46 organizations, many of them charitable agencies, which have allegedly provided aid and support to terrorists, and that any foreign national living in this country who has supported any of these suspect organizations will be deported.
Under the new USA Patriot Act, signed into law by President Bush last week, visas will be denied to anyone who belongs to groups that endorse terrorist activity or who has provided "material support" to such groups, while another new provision in the law allows the attorney general to jail any foreigner deemed to be a "threat to national security," and to hold them for up to seven days without even having to file criminal charges. Once charges have been filed, this detention can continue indefinitely until either the charges are dismissed, or the foreigner is deported or otherwise determined to no longer pose a threat. There are over a thousand individuals now being held in custody by our government under the provisions of this law, many of whom have been identified only as “material witnesses” and have not been charged with any crime. I heard all this, and immediately I was reminded of that famous quotation from Martin Niemuller: "In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me. And by that time, no-one was left to speak up." I just felt like saying, “OK, fine, come get me now and get it over with, because last night I gave eleven dollars and change to the children of Afghanistan, and every Tuesday at noon I like to stand in front of the Post Office for an hour and hold a sign because I’m not really convinced that blowing up people in another country is the best way to prevent terrorists from blowing up people in ours.”
My mood improved slightly a little later in the day, after I received this E-mail from a friend:
Having difficulty telling the good guys from the bad guys? Use this handy guide to tell the difference between Terrorism and the United States Military Industrial Complex:
Osama Bin Laden is the spoiled son of a powerful politician, from an extremely wealthy oil family from Saudi Arabia, whereas George W. Bush is the spoiled son of a powerful politician from extremely wealthy oil family from the state of Texas.
Bin Laden has declared a Jihad or “holy war” against his enemies, and believes any nation not with him is against him. He believes that god is on his side, and that he is justified in using any means necessary in order to achieve victory, while George Bush has declared a Crusade (or holy war) against his 'enemies,’ and believes any nation not with him is against him, that god is on his side, and that he is justified in using any means necessary in order to achieve victory.
The terrorists are supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach hatred, intolerance, the subjugation of women, and the persecution of non-believers; while the Republican party is supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach hatred, intolerance, the subjugation of women, and the persecution of non-believers.
The Taliban was not elected to power by a majority of the people in a free and fair democratic election, but rather imposed their rule by manipulating the decisions of Islamic religious courts; while the Bush Administration was not elected to power by a majority of the people in a free and fair democratic election, but rather imposed its rule by manipulating a decision of the United States Supreme Court.
The terrorists operate a clandestine organization (known as al Qaeda), which has agents in many countries; and have killed thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children, in cold blooded bombings; while the United States government operates a clandestine organization (known as the CIA) which has agents in many countries; and has killed thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children, in cold blooded bombings.
The Taliban is using war as pretext to clamp down on domestic dissent, expel foreigners, silence journalists, and undermine civil liberties. The Justice Department is using war as pretext to clamp down on domestic dissent, expel foreigners, silence journalists, and undermine civil liberties.
So that at least made me chuckle. But then I thought, what’s the point? I mean, I could stand up here and rant about these things from now to Kingdom Come, and it wouldn’t matter, because the people who really need to hear what I have to say on this topic aren’t here to listen, and they probably wouldn’t listen even if they were. It’s not as if I have anything more to teach YOU about the subject, and I certainly don’t take any delight in it. In fact, it seems like every time I turn on the television or open my e-mail I simply find something else to feel frustrated about, but if I give in to my frustrations it just leads to further discouragement, and what’s the good in that? We need encouragement, not discouragement; inspiration, not despair. If I were in charge of our nation’s government, I think I would have pursued very different policies than the ones that are currently in effect, although I don’t know for certain whether they would have achieved any better results. But I’m not in charge of our nation’s government. I’m just the minister of this church, and the interim minister at that. And we have work of our own to do here -- very important work, which, if we do it properly, may at least contribute in some small way to making our tiny corner of the world a better place.
The word “church” in the Greek New Testament is ecclesia, and it means, literally, “to be called out” or “called together.” A church is a collection of individuals who have been called together out of the world in order to form a community with one another, a congregation where everyone is accepted just as they are, but also inspired and encouraged to become the kind of people that their Creator intends for them to be. The process by which this happens is a simple one. It begins by learning to look deeply within yourself, until you find that place where your spirit touches the infinite, and then returning from that place with a new understanding of your unique gifts, which you can then begin to share with others. Or to put it another way, the church is a place where people who are hurt or broken can come to be healed and made whole, and people who are basically healthy and whole can grow to become wise and (dare I say it?) Holy -- empowered by their experience of the divine to do good in the world, because they act out of love and compassion for others, rather than recoiling in fear and pain.
The reason that churches are able to accomplish this important transformation is that, for the most part, they remain one of the few “locally owned and operated” public institutions in our society, and it is here in a "human scale" organization that human beings most effectively encounter the Divine. The 1648 Cambridge Platform, which is the document out of which our own congregational principles of church government have developed, states clearly that the ideal congregation one that is small enough to conveniently meet in one place, yet large enough to do effectively the work of the church as a whole. Each congregation was understood as an autonomous representative of the Church Universal, responsible for ministering effectively to the community which it serves.
And what exactly is "the work of the church?"
Well, a first major area of this work is Worship — in effect what we're doing right now. We gather together, in a public way, to celebrate our common values and lift up a shared heritage and traditions. In some churches worship can become a very elaborate production: there are lots of people in the choir, maybe even a big pipe organ (or a small orchestra), and of course only the most gifted and eloquent preachers occupy the pulpit. Sometimes there's so much going on that there is a very real danger of worship becoming a "performance," and that the people will become "lost in the footlights" of what is essentially an act of entertainment. But the word "liturgy" means, literally, the work of the people -- worship is something that we do, not something that we watch, an expression of devotion and gratitude for the many gifts which life has given us, and the important tasks which life demands of us.
A second major area of work for the church is Education, the means by which we rear our children within a community of faith, and deepen our own understanding and experience of that faith as well. In relatively small churches such as this one there is often a temptation to envy "big" church school programs because they look a lot more like "real" classrooms — full of kids, using the most up-to-date curricula… the teacher in front of the class, trying to keep everything in order while proceeding through the lesson plan. But I'm not so sure that this is really the best way to educate children about religion, or anything else, for that matter. It seems to me that small classes, which emphasize the interaction between a committed teacher and a handful of students, are far more appropriate for the modeling of religious life and religious values. Unlike in "real school," life doesn't always give the test at the end of the semester. The test can come at any time; and it is the role of our teachers to help us learn our lessons in time to use them.
A third responsibility of the church is to cultivate a sense of Fellowship — which I would define as the relationships formed between members of a congregation which support and encourage them in their journey of faith. One of the most striking features of contemporary society is its anonymity, which tends to preserve the illusion that we can always somehow hide from our mistakes. But in a church, everyone eventually seems to know one another’s business, and it can be easy to step on one another’s toes as well. One of the hardest things to do in the world is to approach someone with whom you've had a falling-out, and come to some sort of understanding or reconciliation, to mend fences, bury the hatchet. But it is also one of the most important things. In a church, you have to learn to forgive and to be forgiven; and it is this reciprocity and sense of mutual commitment to one another which takes us beyond the superficiality of many of our other social relationships.
This brings us to a fourth area of church work, which is Pastoral Care. I know that some of you may think that pastoral care is a duty best left to the pastor, and on some level this is probably true. But in our day-to-day lives as members of a religious community, it is essential that we all learn how to care for one another in times of crisis and pastoral need. Even in a relatively small congregation such as this one, it is difficult for the pastor to be everywhere at once, or even to know everything that is going on. Ministers rely on the members of their congregations to tell them when things are happening in people’s lives that would benefit from a little pastoral attention, and I’m not just talking about calling the minister when you are about to go into the hospital, I’m talking about calling the minister when you know of someone ELSE who is going into the hospital. And there are lots of other things that folks can do to help their friends and neighbors in times of personal crisis that don’t require any professional training, only a kind heart and a compassionate eye. Shared ministry is an authentic partnership between the pastor and the people, in which we all work together in order to enhance the ministry of the church to the world.
This takes us to the last major area of the work of the church, which I like to call Evangelical Missionary Outreach, but you may prefer to think of as Social Action. I favor "evangelical missionary outreach" for two reasons. First, because it reminds me that the work of the church is indeed a mission — and it is this mission, this sense of purpose, which provides us with our identity and our reason for being. And second, because it makes it clear that this purpose is not something just for ourselves alone — rather, it is essential that congregations of every size reach out into their communities in order to serve as effective witnesses for the values and principles which we hold so dear, witnesses to our “good news;” and likewise that we serve as a haven, an oaisis, a beloved community, for those who need it, who need for us to be here for them. The greatest challenge a small church faces is that, by doing its job well, it risks becoming larger. But not larger simply for the sake of being larger. Larger because the need is so great, and because no church is ever too small to make a difference.
at the Second Congregation Meeting House on Nantucket Island
Sunday November 4th, 2001
***
[extemporaneous introduction]
I also want to thank David Bartsch for stepping up and filling in for me up here last Sunday. I am always especially gratified when a member of the congregation is willing to fill the pulpit on a Sunday morning, because, if nothing else, at least I know that afterwards there will be one more person in the church who truly understands, intimately, that the minister really does work more than just an hour a week. So I would like to encourage any of you who think that you might also have a sermon in you to start thinking about what that sermon might be. Saint Augustine once wrote that the purpose of a sermon is “to instruct, to delight, and to inspire,” and I suspect that most everyone here has at least one message from their life experience that is worthy of a larger audience, that is capable of teaching and inspiring others in a delightful way. So think hard about what that message might be. Because someday, if you like, you may have an opportunity to share it with the rest of us.
I got home from my retreat just in time to pass out candy to the trick or treaters who came to my door on Halloween, and was delighted to see so many of them carrying UNICEF boxes as well as their own bags of goodies; it inspired me to dip into my wallet so that I could put a little folding money into every box, in the hope of maybe teaching some of them that it is a good thing to be generous when you yourself have been blessed with the means to be generous. As you probably know, this year’s UNICEF contributions have all been earmarked for Afghan relief, which is certainly a worthy cause in my opinion; so I was awfully disappointed to wake up the next morning only to hear the voice of John Ashcroft on the radio, declaring that the Justice Department has identified some 46 organizations, many of them charitable agencies, which have allegedly provided aid and support to terrorists, and that any foreign national living in this country who has supported any of these suspect organizations will be deported.
Under the new USA Patriot Act, signed into law by President Bush last week, visas will be denied to anyone who belongs to groups that endorse terrorist activity or who has provided "material support" to such groups, while another new provision in the law allows the attorney general to jail any foreigner deemed to be a "threat to national security," and to hold them for up to seven days without even having to file criminal charges. Once charges have been filed, this detention can continue indefinitely until either the charges are dismissed, or the foreigner is deported or otherwise determined to no longer pose a threat. There are over a thousand individuals now being held in custody by our government under the provisions of this law, many of whom have been identified only as “material witnesses” and have not been charged with any crime. I heard all this, and immediately I was reminded of that famous quotation from Martin Niemuller: "In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me. And by that time, no-one was left to speak up." I just felt like saying, “OK, fine, come get me now and get it over with, because last night I gave eleven dollars and change to the children of Afghanistan, and every Tuesday at noon I like to stand in front of the Post Office for an hour and hold a sign because I’m not really convinced that blowing up people in another country is the best way to prevent terrorists from blowing up people in ours.”
My mood improved slightly a little later in the day, after I received this E-mail from a friend:
Having difficulty telling the good guys from the bad guys? Use this handy guide to tell the difference between Terrorism and the United States Military Industrial Complex:
Osama Bin Laden is the spoiled son of a powerful politician, from an extremely wealthy oil family from Saudi Arabia, whereas George W. Bush is the spoiled son of a powerful politician from extremely wealthy oil family from the state of Texas.
Bin Laden has declared a Jihad or “holy war” against his enemies, and believes any nation not with him is against him. He believes that god is on his side, and that he is justified in using any means necessary in order to achieve victory, while George Bush has declared a Crusade (or holy war) against his 'enemies,’ and believes any nation not with him is against him, that god is on his side, and that he is justified in using any means necessary in order to achieve victory.
The terrorists are supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach hatred, intolerance, the subjugation of women, and the persecution of non-believers; while the Republican party is supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach hatred, intolerance, the subjugation of women, and the persecution of non-believers.
The Taliban was not elected to power by a majority of the people in a free and fair democratic election, but rather imposed their rule by manipulating the decisions of Islamic religious courts; while the Bush Administration was not elected to power by a majority of the people in a free and fair democratic election, but rather imposed its rule by manipulating a decision of the United States Supreme Court.
The terrorists operate a clandestine organization (known as al Qaeda), which has agents in many countries; and have killed thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children, in cold blooded bombings; while the United States government operates a clandestine organization (known as the CIA) which has agents in many countries; and has killed thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children, in cold blooded bombings.
The Taliban is using war as pretext to clamp down on domestic dissent, expel foreigners, silence journalists, and undermine civil liberties. The Justice Department is using war as pretext to clamp down on domestic dissent, expel foreigners, silence journalists, and undermine civil liberties.
So that at least made me chuckle. But then I thought, what’s the point? I mean, I could stand up here and rant about these things from now to Kingdom Come, and it wouldn’t matter, because the people who really need to hear what I have to say on this topic aren’t here to listen, and they probably wouldn’t listen even if they were. It’s not as if I have anything more to teach YOU about the subject, and I certainly don’t take any delight in it. In fact, it seems like every time I turn on the television or open my e-mail I simply find something else to feel frustrated about, but if I give in to my frustrations it just leads to further discouragement, and what’s the good in that? We need encouragement, not discouragement; inspiration, not despair. If I were in charge of our nation’s government, I think I would have pursued very different policies than the ones that are currently in effect, although I don’t know for certain whether they would have achieved any better results. But I’m not in charge of our nation’s government. I’m just the minister of this church, and the interim minister at that. And we have work of our own to do here -- very important work, which, if we do it properly, may at least contribute in some small way to making our tiny corner of the world a better place.
The word “church” in the Greek New Testament is ecclesia, and it means, literally, “to be called out” or “called together.” A church is a collection of individuals who have been called together out of the world in order to form a community with one another, a congregation where everyone is accepted just as they are, but also inspired and encouraged to become the kind of people that their Creator intends for them to be. The process by which this happens is a simple one. It begins by learning to look deeply within yourself, until you find that place where your spirit touches the infinite, and then returning from that place with a new understanding of your unique gifts, which you can then begin to share with others. Or to put it another way, the church is a place where people who are hurt or broken can come to be healed and made whole, and people who are basically healthy and whole can grow to become wise and (dare I say it?) Holy -- empowered by their experience of the divine to do good in the world, because they act out of love and compassion for others, rather than recoiling in fear and pain.
The reason that churches are able to accomplish this important transformation is that, for the most part, they remain one of the few “locally owned and operated” public institutions in our society, and it is here in a "human scale" organization that human beings most effectively encounter the Divine. The 1648 Cambridge Platform, which is the document out of which our own congregational principles of church government have developed, states clearly that the ideal congregation one that is small enough to conveniently meet in one place, yet large enough to do effectively the work of the church as a whole. Each congregation was understood as an autonomous representative of the Church Universal, responsible for ministering effectively to the community which it serves.
And what exactly is "the work of the church?"
Well, a first major area of this work is Worship — in effect what we're doing right now. We gather together, in a public way, to celebrate our common values and lift up a shared heritage and traditions. In some churches worship can become a very elaborate production: there are lots of people in the choir, maybe even a big pipe organ (or a small orchestra), and of course only the most gifted and eloquent preachers occupy the pulpit. Sometimes there's so much going on that there is a very real danger of worship becoming a "performance," and that the people will become "lost in the footlights" of what is essentially an act of entertainment. But the word "liturgy" means, literally, the work of the people -- worship is something that we do, not something that we watch, an expression of devotion and gratitude for the many gifts which life has given us, and the important tasks which life demands of us.
A second major area of work for the church is Education, the means by which we rear our children within a community of faith, and deepen our own understanding and experience of that faith as well. In relatively small churches such as this one there is often a temptation to envy "big" church school programs because they look a lot more like "real" classrooms — full of kids, using the most up-to-date curricula… the teacher in front of the class, trying to keep everything in order while proceeding through the lesson plan. But I'm not so sure that this is really the best way to educate children about religion, or anything else, for that matter. It seems to me that small classes, which emphasize the interaction between a committed teacher and a handful of students, are far more appropriate for the modeling of religious life and religious values. Unlike in "real school," life doesn't always give the test at the end of the semester. The test can come at any time; and it is the role of our teachers to help us learn our lessons in time to use them.
A third responsibility of the church is to cultivate a sense of Fellowship — which I would define as the relationships formed between members of a congregation which support and encourage them in their journey of faith. One of the most striking features of contemporary society is its anonymity, which tends to preserve the illusion that we can always somehow hide from our mistakes. But in a church, everyone eventually seems to know one another’s business, and it can be easy to step on one another’s toes as well. One of the hardest things to do in the world is to approach someone with whom you've had a falling-out, and come to some sort of understanding or reconciliation, to mend fences, bury the hatchet. But it is also one of the most important things. In a church, you have to learn to forgive and to be forgiven; and it is this reciprocity and sense of mutual commitment to one another which takes us beyond the superficiality of many of our other social relationships.
This brings us to a fourth area of church work, which is Pastoral Care. I know that some of you may think that pastoral care is a duty best left to the pastor, and on some level this is probably true. But in our day-to-day lives as members of a religious community, it is essential that we all learn how to care for one another in times of crisis and pastoral need. Even in a relatively small congregation such as this one, it is difficult for the pastor to be everywhere at once, or even to know everything that is going on. Ministers rely on the members of their congregations to tell them when things are happening in people’s lives that would benefit from a little pastoral attention, and I’m not just talking about calling the minister when you are about to go into the hospital, I’m talking about calling the minister when you know of someone ELSE who is going into the hospital. And there are lots of other things that folks can do to help their friends and neighbors in times of personal crisis that don’t require any professional training, only a kind heart and a compassionate eye. Shared ministry is an authentic partnership between the pastor and the people, in which we all work together in order to enhance the ministry of the church to the world.
This takes us to the last major area of the work of the church, which I like to call Evangelical Missionary Outreach, but you may prefer to think of as Social Action. I favor "evangelical missionary outreach" for two reasons. First, because it reminds me that the work of the church is indeed a mission — and it is this mission, this sense of purpose, which provides us with our identity and our reason for being. And second, because it makes it clear that this purpose is not something just for ourselves alone — rather, it is essential that congregations of every size reach out into their communities in order to serve as effective witnesses for the values and principles which we hold so dear, witnesses to our “good news;” and likewise that we serve as a haven, an oaisis, a beloved community, for those who need it, who need for us to be here for them. The greatest challenge a small church faces is that, by doing its job well, it risks becoming larger. But not larger simply for the sake of being larger. Larger because the need is so great, and because no church is ever too small to make a difference.
posted by The Eclectic Cleric at 9:49 AM
