The Heart of Christian Faith 10-15-23
The Heart of Christian Faith
Ex 32:1-14; Phil 4:1-9
Ex 32:1-14
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Phil 4:1-9
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Prayer – Gracious God – give us the faith in our ability, with your grace, to be the church that you would have us to be, to be courageous and creative in our witness, to be bold in our proclamation of the gospel, and to be persevering as we confront whatever challenges are placed before our church in our time and place, and most of all to do it all together. You have called us to be your visible presence in this world, now we pray that you would give us what we need as a church to be faithful to your call – amen.
Let’s be honest. It isn’t that easy being the church – particularly in our 21st century. We have our work cut out for us, even though we are gathered here in one place, not because we are not all on the same page in regard to our politics, tastes in music, or even how we believe and follow Christ. Our task is difficult, not because close to 60% of young Americans believe they can get along fine without connecting with any church. And if you are wondering why ‘church’ is so difficult today perhaps we can take a look at who the main instigator of our congregations difficulties begin. You see our church is not ours. We don’t get to decide with whom we’ll be church.
It seems as if the church today is as contentious as DC politics. Christians are split by many different issues – from abortion, to guns, to politics, to sexual orientation, to whether women should be leaders in the church. There are disagreements about the purpose and mission of the church. Genteel and decorous Christians are showing their fangs about any number of issues. And while it is true that we live in a combative, quarrelsome age where political divides also afflict the church, it’s important to see some of this trouble as an expected spinoff of Jesus’ life and work and way of doing things 2000 years ago just as today.
A savior who sets out to seek, find, and save the lost who, when criticized because of the company he kept at the table smirked, “If you are well, you don’t need a doctor. I’ve not come for the good, respectable, Bible-thumping, justice-advocating, biblical world-view, holy living, moderate, sensitive to other people’s wounds church people. I’ve come for sinners, only sinners.” And that is all of us including those Jesus may not have necessarily come for. Or as Paul put it to one of his contentious, disagreeing and disagreeable, combative congregations, “You might be willing to die for a really, really good person, but he shows his love for us in that he died for all of us – good and bad.”
I remind you that Jesus got into all manner of difficulty, not because he refused to be married to a woman, nor because of questions about his orthodoxy or biblical interpretation. The chief charge against Jesus time and time again was that he saved those whom no one thought could be saved, or rather no one the religious thought should be saved. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Never once did Jesus command us to love the lovely, loveable, and loving. Never did he allow his disciples to waste time attempting to determine which sin was the worst or who to ban from discipleship. Welcoming outcasts and saving all people were his obsessions, and he paid dearly for it.
Jesus’ determination to save sinners, all of us, would be challenge enough for us sinners without Jesus’ equally determined insistence to put those being-redeemed sinners in the church. Because of Jesus’ peculiar definition of salvation, we must be saved as a group. His ministry began with the formation of a band of disciples – everyday folk who struggled to live life itself, much less live life faithfully. Pau didn’t go forth into the world asking Gentiles thoughtfully to consider his message and then come to a personal verdict upon the truth. Paul went about planting churches, calling them ‘the body of Christ,’ Christ’s bodily, physical presence in the world. So if anybody encounters the risen Christ, it will be through the ragtag, divinely contrived gathering otherwise known as the church.
Jesus prayed constantly that all of his followers would be of one mind and even commands us to get along with one another. Yet, from the first, we’ve been unable to fully live up to his expectations, having so little in common except love from him. Sometimes, it seems that we have forgotten that it is Jesus and his love that draws us together. Sometimes it seems that we are more interested in creating church like we think it should be created – as a religious, social club that looks alike, thinks alike and excludes any one that may not ‘fit in.’
Across the church today, let’s face it, we congregate because we’ve been assembled. Little wonder that, from the first, there was disputation, division, and problems with keeping it together as a congregation. In this Sunday’s lesson from Paul’s letter to the church at Philipi, Paul writes with high-sounding theology, perhaps exhorting them to set aside their individual differences and unify in agreement with the Lord’s commands. Unity in the church, agreement with one another, how to get along as Christians in the church – that is the focus on at least a third of Paul’s letters to his freshly planted congregations. Sounds like those ancient new churches struggled just as much as we do today.
Maybe it’s of some comfort to know that even in the congregation started and cared for by Paul, there was, from the first, difficulty keeping unity in the church. And I’m saying that church difficulties with unity and togetherness are often a function on Jesus’ determination to save all of us, and for us to communion with and fellowship with one another in the context of church.
Be honest. One of the most challenging aspects of being commissioned by Christ is to be gathered by Christ with those with whom we may have little in common other than Christ. Whatever work Christ does in the world today, he chooses to do it in concert with the unruly choir that he assembles. He comes to us, he calls us to follow him, sends us to do work for him, together. Christ, the great delegator, the relentless congregator, calls us to do his saving work as an ensemble.
Again, let’s be honest. One of the hardest things as a pastor is having to work with anybody Jesus drags in the door. And one of the hardest things for the church and of being laity is having to listen to the unlikely ones that Jesus has called to preach. My fear is that at that last judgment, I’ll not be condemned for my bad preaching but rather Christ will say to me, ‘nice seeing you but where are the others I asked you to bring with you?’
To a great degree I think one of the biggest challenges for us as human beings is our propensity to categorize, to separate, to set up differences between ourselves and countless others. Whether is based on race, or economic status, or what school we attended, who we vote for, what grocery store we go to, division is as easy and natural thing in a culture of rugged individualism, consumerism, political factionalism, and self-protectiveness from discomforting truths. Togetherness is hard – it takes work, ask any married couple of 40 years or more. Congregating requires empowerment from outside ourselves; ‘not I, but Christ who lives in me.’ When Jesus interceded for us, he prayed not that we would bow to biblical authority, be orthodox or prophetic or even that we would be right. He begged God to make us one. “This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love one another.”
Christ’s call to congregate his followers, to save and to deploy us together, means that we can expect differences and disagreements, arguments and dissension in even the most loving and caring of congregations. Be surprised when we are on the same page about anything other than Jesus. Differences in our congregation, in any congregation, can be life-giving, a result of our trying to be a faithful, loving, caring congregation. We need to be willing to debate, to listen, and to be corrected and thereby brought closer to Jesus by a fellow Christian who may very well not be your type of disciple.
How could we have grown and matured in our faith without the jostling and insight that we receive from pesky preachers, contentious congregants, and quarrelsome colleagues God uses to say things we may not want to hear, but nevertheless need to hear in order to grow in faith. Think back to some of your memorable moments on your faith journey and I can almost bet the growth was due to something that made you think, reflect, contemplate that was different than what you had always believed. Which is the reason that I often say to you, my job is to make you think, question, wrestle with your faith in order to own it and grow.
Congregations have been assigned such tough work to do by Jesus that we must be held together by more than cultural, economic, and sociological bonds. We have got to be together on the basis of more than sharing a common culture. There’s probably no way we arrive at a political, ethical, ideological agreement that will end our divisions and make us whole. The sole source of our togetherness – Jesus has come to each of us, called us, commissioned us, and then congregated us as the church.
Here is my ideal church member – that person who is able to love Christ enough to say to me – ‘While I don’t always agree with you as best as I understand your stance from your rather incoherent sermons, since Jesus brought us together without giving us much choice in the matter and then commanded us to stay together even though it may be easier to go to different church, I’ll keep talking, continue listening, and praying that we will grow more committed to Christ – together. When it comes to being Christian it is about relationship and not always agreement on doctrine or theology.
So let’s remind ourselves of what we are asking of people when they visit or join our church – to believe that there’s a gathering more important than our nation, political party or even family; to share our gifts, talents and blessings for the needs of perfect strangers; to stay in conversation with those who are put off by any number of things that just don’t matter at the end of the day – like whether they are a Cowboys fan or Texans fan or Saints fan – and at the end of the day, to trust that the gospel of God can be shared from the hands of another who may not look, act, speak or dress like you. It’s so much easier to leave a congregation than to stay and try to achieve the togetherness that Jesus wants of us.
So if we are going to be with Christ, it appears that we must continually find a way to be in congregation with one another, togetherness. The courage to congregate, is part of the way that Jesus continues his work in the world today. Our congregation, our church, yes, the poor old church, has been given the truth about God. God really is in Christ reconciling the world to himself, bringing all things together. Maybe not exclusively but certainly primarily through our congregation and its life together. Let’s show the world that Christ is capable of assembling people who have little in common except him. Let’s love, serve, follow and work with Christ together – because that is the heart of the Christian faith – thanks be to God – amen.
(adapted from William Willimon, “Serving Christ Together”