I am sure you are all sitting on the edge of your seat wanting to know the answer to my sermon title! If I had a dime for every time I heard........ Some of you have waited two weeks to find out what it is that I was going to say. I was holding you in suspense! If I had a dime for every time I heard...... I would finish with: ”A criticism of churches, I would be a wealthy man!”
Maybe I hear this because it is the company I keep, people who are always demanding and expecting and wanting churches to be more or better. Maybe it is just the society that we are in that does not really seem to appreciate or care that much for anything that has to do with formal religion or the pursuit of faith. Maybe it is genuine people who want the church to be better than it is for all the good and right and holy reasons. Maybe it is due to an intense dislike of the Christian faith and for what Jesus had to say and who Jesus is. Or, maybe it is the fact that if they can’t tell me, who can they tell? I get from time to time, a litany of complaints about churches, and I am not just talking about our own; I am talking about churches in general.
I think there is a rightful place for any wise person or institution to listen to criticisms if they are genuine, for nothing remains static. The problem is that sometimes the litany of complaints has a way of cutting the vibrancy of the faith of people. It chops down people of goodwill and sincere heart who are seeking to do their very best and lead a godly life. It can be discouraging to young people wanting to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and wanting Christ’s power and strength in their lives. It can be very difficult for new members of the church or those who are new to the faith. It can be challenging for those who have been in the faith for a long, long time, and who have committed heart and soul and mind and strength to the welfare of the church. It can be very disheartening at times.
When I travel throughout Canada, when I meet and engage people who are involved in leadership in the Church here in Toronto, when I go beyond the bounds of our own nation to churches in other parts of the world, I am actually astounded by the grace and the activity and the compassion that is so often part of the church’s life. So when I hear the litany, it does not always resonate with the experience that I have. Be that as it may, I realize that there are people who will always be critical of churches, and I am always interested in what we do in such circumstances. How do we respond in such circumstances, for our faith has never been in the church per se or in churches; our faith has always been in Christ. We hitch our star to him – and to him alone! It seems to me, if that is the case, then this Lord is not finished with us yet.
The problem with a lot of the criticism is that it is static. It freezes the church in time or in place. Things that have gone wrong for over 2,000 years can be dug up and skeletons can fall out of closets. All manner of things can manifest themselves both positively and negatively, but the problem is there is often the assumption that the church and churches are static things, when we are anything but that! God is not finished with us yet. God continues to work and to manifest God’s self through the Church in ways that are beyond our comprehension and our understanding.
I base all this on what I like to call “A blast from the past.” The blast from the past is today’s passage from the Book of Corinthians, for Corinthians is a book that was written to a group of Christians in Corinth probably around 55 AD. It was only 20-odd years after the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, so keep that in mind. They are a small group, they are probably a large house church, and they probably gathered in the home of a man called Gaius. Paul, according to most scholars, had written them a letter before. There must have been some others because he refers to the fact that “I told you before” but now, he is writing a letter and he expects it to be read out loud in this house church to everybody.
He understands that there are problems within that church. There has been elitism, where some people feel that they are more spiritually gifted than others and that they are more important than everybody else. They know the truth but there are others who don’t and they divide themselves up according to spiritual vibe. There are other divisions: divisions between those who are new to the faith and those who have been part of the faith for a long time. Those who are new to the faith are amazed at how frosty and obnoxious some of the existing members are being in their traditions. It is amazing over a matter of ten years how things can take root in a church!
There are also division about how they deal with the pagan world around them. Should they adapt to the culture that surrounds them or should they be very different from the culture that is around them? Then there is the question of leadership. Some say, “I follow Peter.” Some say “I follow Paul.” And some say, “I follow Apollo!” They had come to this church in Corinth through the ministry of different people, and they attached their loyalty to the apostle who had brought them into this congregation in the first place.
Paul, in the midst of this, does not begin the letter by enumerating the litany of complaints. He starts off with a wonderful phrase that was used in the Intertestamental Period and comes from the Book of Baruch. He says to them, “Grace and peace be with you.” Grace is the ongoing activity of the Holy Spirit pointing to what Christ has done within it, and peace is the experience that they have, the knowledge that they have of God’s holy presence and forgiveness of sin in their lives. So he starts off, “Grace and peace to you” but then he says “in” or “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, grace is the ongoing manifestation of God in your life; peace is the manifestation that God is at work in your life and Jesus Christ is the source of your life. Now, does this sound to you like a dead letter frozen in time? I think not! This is a letter that believes that God has not finished with them yet and that God has great things to do among them. “Grace and peace to you through Jesus Christ” is one of the most powerful statements of why the church exists. It is not where they stand now that Paul is concerned about; it is where they are going.
I had a great uncle, wonderful man! He was an educator, a school Principal, he wrote history books for schools in Britain, and became Principal of a Teachers’ College. He was eminent! At one point in his career he took over a school that was moving over into what was called Comprehensive Education. The Comprehensive school was in a large catchment area. Everyone kept saying to my uncle, “You know, the catchment area that you’ve got is not particularly good. You are not going to have a very high quality of student coming to you.” Many of them were from homes that were poor or ill educated or broken. They had come from backgrounds that had led them to come from the east end of London to where they were in Essex, and it was not a good catchment area. There were other students who came from another part of town who came from good families and good homes and had a lot of opportunities. This school was a mixture of both.
Every time my uncle would hear the criticism of the quality of students coming into the school he had a standard refrain and I have never forgotten, because he told me about it too. I think this is absolutely true about so many things. He said, “I am not interested in the quality of the student that is brought into my school; I am interested in the quality of the student that leaves our school.” In other words, “Bring on who you need to bring on, but our school will make sure that they become better because they have been here.” He did not want to hear about the problems of those who came in; he wanted to hear about the successes of those who had graduated. That is why he was so passionate about the students. He didn’t care where you came from or what your background was; he wanted you to leave better than when you had come in. Isn’t that what the Church is about?
The Church is not a static institution to which we come to find holy perfection; the Church is a place that changes us by the power of Christ living in our lives. When people criticize the Church for not living up to its own particular standards or virtues, I say, “Are you making it any better? Because, God isn’t finished with us yet.” It doesn’t matter if Paul wrote to Corinth or to Rome or to Ephesus or Galatia; there are characteristics of his letters that are positive. He begins always with a positive tone. He always, for example, begins by giving thanks. He wants us to be thankful. Last week, as you might have been aware, I was supposed to preach, and I had asked Michael Cuifo to sing a piece, in it is this line: “There is much to be thankful for.”
“There is much to be thankful for” Paul says this about his church. He doesn’t go into a litany of its problems. He says “I am thankful to you, I am grateful to you, I know God is doing great things among you.” He looks to the positive. He sees that the Holy Spirit is giving them gifts, that the Corinthian Church has wisdom, knowledge, and has been bearing testimony. There has been really good things about this Church. Sure, they have problems, but they have a living, vibrant presence in Corinth for the Gospel and Paul is thankful for them. He is thankful for every single Christian community that has ever been. He recognizes it is an amazing thing when people get together in the grace and peace and love of Jesus Christ.
They might have come for many and different reasons. Many of them in that house church in Corinth had come maybe out of curiosity. Maybe they were there because they needed forgiveness. Maybe they were there because they wanted community. Maybe they were there because they had heard about Jesus and his power. Maybe they were there just because someone from the congregation had been kind to them. There are many motivations and reasons why people get involved in churches.
I love this story! It is sort of one of these ministerial stories that we tell each other from time to time and I found in ‘Pass The Port’. There are clergy here in the church and they will know this story. This story is about a minister who was ministering in Washington DC. One day, he got a telephone call from someone visiting who wanted to know, because they had heard that this was the church that President Roosevelt attended. They asked “Reverend do you think President Roosevelt will be in church on Sunday?”
The pastor thought about this for a while and then he said, “I can’t guarantee that the President will be in church, but I can assure you that God will and that usually gives a good reason for a reasonable turnout on Sunday mornings.”
The person had come to simply hob-knob with the President! The pastor reminded him that reason he was there was God. The reason the Church exists is for God. It has no other reason but this. There is no other reason for churches to be in the barrios of Latin America or the slums of Nigeria or in the temples in Rome or at Timothy Eaton Memorial! No other reason at all – except that God is at work. That is why Paul is thankful, because he knows that God is at work with him.
Paul also wants the Corinthians to be confident. In every single letter, Paul says, “I pray for you and am thankful for you always.” This is not for one moment in time, not just now, but always. It shows the love that Paul has for the church. It also shows the compassion that he has and the concern is for always, not just now, not when there are problems, not just at high points of glory, not in moments of challenge or moments of virtue, but always! Paul says, “I always give thanks. I always pray for you.”
This was an assurance to them that their life was a dynamic life; it was not just frozen in time. The Church is not frozen in the 1950s! Many people would have liked it to have been. It is not frozen in the ‘60s or the ‘70s or the ‘80s, and it is not frozen in 2014! Why? It is because Paul gives thanks always for those who gather in God’s name. God has not finished with them yet. Later on, in 1 Corinthians in Chapter 10, verse 13, he says, “God will never tempt you or challenge you beyond that which you are able to handle.” In other words, no matter what comes along, you will always be able to handle it. You need to be confident that God will see you through it. That is the kind of hope “always” brings!
His last statement is the sweetest of all. He says, “I pray that God will make you strong until the end.” Not weak, but strong! What did he mean by “strong”? He means strong in faith, strong in commitment to one another, strong in fellowship. But also, strength implies that you don’t give up. I learned that lesson this week when I went to my physiotherapist and the painful physical challenge that I went through for an hour. The continued refrain was, “It is no point me just doing this now if you don’t continue to do it!” In other words, don’t just do the exercises now; you’ve got to be doing these exercises - and the way I heard them talking it sounded like I’ll be doing them until they put me in a box in the ground! It is going to be a lifelong exercise! Keep exercising! Keep doing what you are supposed to be doing. It is a commitment. It requires perseverance. It is the same with faith. Being strong means persevering. It means not giving up on things. It is easy to give up and criticize, it is a whole other thing to be strong and in a loving and committed way in fellowship to help grow and develop it.
I heard a wonderful story about a man who attended St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City on Fifth Avenue, a prestigious – I hate that word! – Episcopalian church. He went into this church, he walked down the aisle and he sat down, and he had a great big hat on, a Stetson. He sat right in the front pew. After a few minutes, just before the service was to begin, one of the ushers came up to him and said, “Sir, you know, really now we’re in church it’s better to remove the hat.”
The man said, “No. I am not removing my hat.”
So then, the head usher came down the aisle, and he said, “You know, sir, you really should remove the hat when you worship.”
He said, “I am not removing the hat.”
After that, the Chair of the Sanctuary Guild came down, and she spoke lovingly and kindly into his ear, and said, “Would you please, sir, remove your hat. Worship is about to begin. We don’t wear hats here.”
The man said, “No!”
Finally the Senior Warden got the nod. He came down and he asked the man to remove his hat, and the man said, “I am not removing my hat.”
So, the worship service began and the Choir came down the aisle, the first hymn began, and the man removed his hat.
At the end of the service, the man went down the aisle, and the usher and all the others went up to him and said, “Sir, you do realize why we ask you to remove your hat. In an Episcopalian church men don’t wear their hats in church. It is just not done!”
The man said, “I know. I have been an Episcopalian for 30 years. Oh, and what is more, I have been a regular attendant in this church for two years, but nobody knew that I was here. And now, I have met an usher, the head usher, I met the head of the Sanctuary Guild and the warden in ten minutes!”
He’d got lost in the crowd. It happens, doesn’t it? But, he did something about it. He persevered! God bless him! He persevered. He remained strong. Why? It was because he was actually committed to the place. He was committed to the people. He was committed to the faith. I think that is exactly what our Christian life means to us. There might be a litany of concerns, but I do think that there is a place for us at times just to let God work in us.
I like what a friend of mine, Barry Morrison, who was preaching here last fall, said once. He said, “You become what you say about yourself.” If we say about ourselves we are here because of Christ. If we say about ourselves that we are confident in Christ. If we say we are strong, we are strong in Christ. If we say we are always belonging to Christ, then we become what we say about ourselves. I think that is one of the great challenges for the Christian faith, and you and me this Advent.
If I had a dime for every time I heard “Those Christians are kind in the faith” I might not be a rich man, but I would be a happy man! Amen.