A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, March 29, 2009
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Over the centuries Christians have done many things well. One of them is to fight – or at least feud. For most of the church’s history there have been factions and strong proclamations by this group or that group that they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Many wars have been waged in the name of Jesus Christ and many have been silenced and driven away by the victors.
Some of that sentiment is still at work – a winner-take-all theology. In the year 2000, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, described the Catholic Church as the church that Jesus Christ established circa 30 CE. He said other Christian denominations are not “churches in the proper sense.” He portrayed members of other religions as “gravely deficient” relative to Roman Catholics who, alone, he believes to have “the fullness of the means of salvation.”
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rcc_othe6.htm
The world-wide Anglican Church is feeling the deep tears of division, particularly over strongly differing opinions about homosexuality. And other traditions are struggling with conservative, moderate, and liberal wings that seem unable to live in peace with each other.
It’s also true that Christians are losing influence, ever so gradually, in the affairs of our nation, while the percentage of Christians is sky-rocketing in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
I’d guess you’ve heard the new reports generated in the last few weeks by the American Religious Identification Survey. Researchers from Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut polled more than 54,000 adult Americans about their religious beliefs and practices, and chart the changes in the last 20 years. A few of the findings:
1. nationwide, 76% consider themselves Christians, down 10% in 20 years.
2. 30% of married couples have a non-religious ceremony.
3. More than 25% say they will not have a religious funeral or memorial service
4. The historic mainline Protestant denominations have experienced the deepest declines.
5. The New England states are the least religious in the nation; and
6. The greatest challenge to Christianity in the US does not come from other religions but rather from a rejection of all organized religion.
I find this study particularly interesting because the time line coincides exactly with the span of my ministry here with you in South Portland. And the findings are reflected clearly in our pews. You and I – mainline Protestant Christians in New England – are part of the fastest-shrinking religious group in the nation. The percentage of Roman Catholics in New England is also dropping dramatically and would be shrinking nationally except for the growth from immigration, particularly from Hispanic populations into southwestern states.
But why? The report says that will take further research. Columnist Leonard Pitts says he thinks it’s because religions have become ugly. Pitts appears regularly in our Portland newspaper. He’s also an active member of a United Church of Christ congregation in Maryland. In his column last week (Wednesday, March 18, 2009) he wrote:
…people of faith should ask themselves: What is the cumulative effect upon outside observers of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker living like lords on the largess of the poor, multiplied by Jimmy Swaggart’s pornography addiction, plus Eric Rudolph bombing Olympians and gays in the name of God, plus Muslims hijacking airplanes in the name of God, multiplied by the church that kicked out some members because they voted Democrat, divided by people caterwauling on courthouse steps as a rock bearing the Ten Commandments was removed, multiplied by the square root of Catholic priests preying on little boys while the church looked on and did nothing, multiplied by Muslims rioting over cartoons, plus the ongoing demonization of gay men and lesbians, divided by all those ”traditional values” coalitions and ”family values” councils that try to bully public schools into becoming worship houses, with morning prayers and science lessons from the book of Genesis? Then subtract selflessness, service, sacrifice, holiness and hope.
Do the math, and I bet you’ll draw the same conclusion the researchers did.
www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/948713.html
I suspect that’s all true. And to put a finer point on it, I believe we’re losing numbers because for too long, Catholic and mainstream Protestants have tried too hard to maintain the status quo. We’ve spent huge amounts of energy guarding our boundaries and tussling over versions of the Lord’s Prayer or translations of scripture or whether we should condemn or embrace certain people. We argue over the covenants that were chiseled into stone eons ago.
We’ve reserved our outrage for debates about liturgy and Christology, while the world cries with wars, poverty, homelessness, and sin of every description. We’ve forgotten that Jesus was a rabble-rouser who was arrested, tried, convicted and executed because he refused to remain silent in the face of the Powers that would do anything to keep their control in the temple and the city hall.
I’m not so sure that people are leaving Christian churches because we’ve been ugly; more likely because we’ve been irrelevant. We’ve ignored Jesus’ admonition that those who want to find their life must lose it; and that applies to the church as surely as it does to individuals. When we in the church sit in judgment of everything outside of our sanctuaries, we soon discover that we are simply, literally, preaching to the converted. The rest of the world yawns and walks away in disappointment.
So it was, the prophet Jeremiah declared the word of God: the time will come when the people of God will follow in holy ways, not because of laws and punishments, but because of inner motivation, because of a deep desire to live in harmony with God’s will.
You may recall from the book of Exodus how deeply God desired the obedience and righteousness of the Children of Israel. They wandered and turned away and God then spoke to them in the Ten Commandments written on tablets through Moses. They turned and they rebelled, and they refused to keep the covenant.
We know that it’s God’s nature never to give up on us, though just as surely, God holds us responsible for our sins. So God sought other ways to reach us. As Christians we believe God came to us in a New Covenant, in Jesus – calling us to a new relationship that is bound not by the Ten Commandments but by the law of love.
That’s the law that guides us here on Meetinghouse Hill. Obviously, we don’t claim our way is the only way, or even the best way. But we do claim that here we continue to find the will of God, written in our hearts. Here we earnestly desire to follow in the ways of Jesus Christ and to engage the world. Perhaps I can best explain our particular way through several questions:
Don’t we want something more than a list of rules and regulations that are written on tablets of stone? I know I do.
I want a robust faith written on my heart that informs my life and shapes my choices and decisions every single day.
Don’t we want something more than worship that’s written in a book and liturgies that seem never to change? I know I do.
I want robust worship that feels familiar and solid, that connects me with the holy, translating ancient truth into contemporary reality while calling me to think and feel and sing and pray in ways that stretch me a little beyond my comfort zone.
Don’t we want something more than chirpy assurances that everything’s fine because we’re going to heaven when we die? I know I do.
I want a robust faith that reminds me of God’s call to do justice and love kindness and walk in humility, and that if I’m busy answering that call, I’m just too busy to worry about positioning myself for heaven. That’s in God’s hands.
Don’t we want something more than a benign benediction telling us that we’re the good guys and whatever we say or do is pleasing to God? I know I do.
I want a robust faith that comforts me in my trials, but also confronts me with the reality of the world’s pain, and pushes me out of my accustomed ways when I get complacent and spiritually lazy.
Don’t we want something more than a claim that we as Christians are the only ones God loves and the only ones who know God’s will? I know I do.
I deeply desire a robust faith that is solid, sure and true, but that doesn’t depend on labeling others as sinful or ignorant or just plain wrong.
We will never claim that we know God’s will perfectly and follow it perfectly and that we therefore have the right to judge others. Rather, we will work side by side in creating an enthusiastic, spirited, loving, reconciling community in which we’re free and safe to speak what we believe.
I’ve never felt this so keenly as two weeks ago on March 15. Elsa and I shared the message together and told you why we have both come to the decision to stop signing marriage licenses. If you weren’t here you can read our thoughts online.
After worship there were many comments from you – as we hoped there would be – both pro and con. But the most memorable part of the day was what happened after the service when we went together to Davidson Lounge. There were between 30 and 40 of us after the second service.
And in the 45 minutes we were together there wasn’t a harsh word, or judgmental comment. No one claimed perfect wisdom or truth; no one dismissed another who held a different opinion.
Someone said “I really don’t like this,” and others said “that’s OK, we hear you and some of us agree with you.” Someone else said “I’m so proud of my church and of my pastors,” and others said “that’s OK, we hear you and some of us agree with you.”
And after everyone had a chance to speak and to feel heard, we stood in a circle and held hands and many different voices offered prayers of thanks to God for the church we are becoming.
This is the New Covenant, God says through the prophet Jeremiah: “I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.”
That’s the faith we wrestle with together right here and right now… a covenant not written on stone but written in our hearts and witnessed in our lives. That gives me such hope! And we all know there are a lot of people out there who don’t know what we’re like in here – folks who drive by thinking we’re self-righteous and self-consumed Christians who judge and exclude others.
And, I believe you know and meet lots of people who would love to find a church like ours.
As we draw closer to Holy Week and prepare to live again the drama of the world’s pain and God’s overwhelming love, let’s keep the faith alive in our hearts, and share it with the world, this world that God loves so very much.
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The following invitation to the morning offering was given by Chris Dow, our worship leader:
It was a gray Sunday morning in early January and my spirits matched the weather. I felt like pulling the covers up over my head and staying home from church. However, something summoned me and so I came.
Upon my arrival, I was greeted with a hug from a friend I had not seen in a very long time. Oh the power of a hug! The ushers greeted me as I entered the sanctuary, one of whom was a new member of the church, and I was pleased to see that he had found a niche in his new church home. Another one of the ushers paid me a lovely compliment. My spirits began to soar!
John McCall greeted AnnElissa Levesque and her daughter using sign language, and I was reminded of the sense of community I experience here and how all our members contribute to our church family.
Jill and Ed Saxby introduced their beautiful baby granddaughter to us, and tears came to my eyes when the choir sang ‘In the Bleak Mid Winter’, and I could hear my dear friend, Jim Morang’s voice in the tenor section.
All of these rich, rich blessings even before John’s sermon which was excellent and ended with the poem, ‘The Work of Christmas’.
When the service was over, I knew why I had come: I came to experience the blessings of being part of this church family. And so it is in this spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving that I ask you to join with me as we receive our morning offering.